Undead
by Winddance
Summary: Sometimes even Harry Potter can't save everyone, but he'll never stop trying to make things right, even when it seems hopeless. Romance with a plot, savory yet sweet with a tinge of fluffy whipped cream on top. H/G with some R/H for good measure.
1. Fire and Ice

Disclaimer: Everyone else has one, so I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon! It's not mine everyone! Nothing's mine! So there! *sticks out tongue* Ha!  
  
A/N: Hey everyone! This is the first fanfic I've ever posted, though not the first one I've attempted to write. I'd really appreciate any constructive advice you could give me in reviews. I got the idea from listening to a song, so if anyone wants to 'set the mood' or something, it's "Paradise" by Vanessa Carlton...though the part of the story that ties in with the song won't really come in until later...  
  
~ Undead ~  
  
Chapter 1 ~ Fire and Ice  
  
Harry lay on his bed in Hogwarts, staring into space and trying fairly successfully to think of absolutely nothing. He had a vague feeling that he should be doing something, but he pushed it aside. For a moment he had almost thought that getting up and doing something would be a pleasant change, something to take his mind off of...whatever it had been on. He lifted a hand and stared at it vaguely. Movement wasn't so bad after all; it wasn't his body that was hurting – not as much, anyway. The blood-red light of the sunset was streaming though the window and tinting the room with fire. He watched the light play over his hand and remembered a fiery hue just like that, with the light and shadows playing over it in wild abandon...he let his hand drop.  
  
He lay there watching the scarlet light fade into blackness, and thought it was fitting. As the last vestiges of light disappeared, so too did his consciousness, and Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, slipped into a fitful slumber.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"No, Ginny! You can't come with us! Go back to sleep or I'll...I'll...I'll sic Fred and George on you tomorrow and tell them I saw you kissing Malfoy!"  
  
"Oh, Ron, come off it! I need to go to Zonko's and Honeydukes is just calling my name. It's not like I'm a baby you'll need to coddle or anything; I'm more mature than you, any day!"  
  
"No! How did you find out anyway? It's just me, Harry, and Hermione going, and I can't see one of them telling you."  
  
"You are so incredibly insufferable sometimes! Me, Harry, and Hermione also happen to be friends, in case you hadn't noticed. And Harry let it slip while we were in the library...I think he was distracted by the essay he was writing or something..."  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Sheesh, Ron, are you her father or something? Let her come if she wants. Yeah, yeah, she's your sister and all, but will it really hurt? She's a lot fun to hang out with...I like being with her..."  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Lets go to Zonko's now! I've been dying to get in there, I need to stock up on some dung bombs!"  
  
"What, are you trying to follow in Fred and George's footsteps? Not that I mind, just don't team up with them when we're at home, ok? I'd never live!"  
  
"Harry! What was that? I thought I heard something."  
  
"I dunno, Hermione. I bet it's nothing, don't worry about it...."  
  
~ * ~  
  
Screams...  
  
Something green shot at him from the vicinity of a dark robe and he ducked quickly, just barely hitting the ground in time...  
  
He looked up from his vantage on the ground to see a redhead ducking another burst of green light, only to skid into the path of another killing curse...  
  
A horrified denial sprang to his lips and he tried to jump to his feet but he was held in a peculiar paralysis that wouldn't let him up...  
  
Just before the light connected, another redheaded figure transposed itself in the way of the curse. The light connected and a burst of evil flame blossomed...  
  
Brown eyes staring into his, trying to tell him...something, too late as the light flickered and died, leaving him in absolute darkness...  
  
He screamed a name into the void...  
  
~ * ~  
  
Harry sat up in his bed, soaked in sweat and trembling violently in every painfully taught muscle. He realized that he must have screamed out loud, as Lavender, who was sitting in a chair by his bedside, was looking at him with frightened and concerned eyes. He supposed that someone was anxious about him, and had sent her to keep watch over him. It was a kind gesture, but it went largely unappreciated as Harry scowled at her and promptly lay down with his back towards her. After all, he wasn't made of glass. He'd lived through quite a bit before this...he'd survived then, and he would now...Harry drifted back to sleep.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Screams...  
  
~ * ~  
  
When Harry awoke in the morning, he felt slightly more alive physically than he had the night before, but the horrible dreams that plagued his sleep had left him emotionally drained. He rolled over on his back and noticed that Lavender had fallen asleep with her head on his bedside table, her face tear-streaked. He raised a hand to his own cheeks and felt the gummy stickiness of dried tears and blood. He rubbed a little and looked with disgust at the flakes of dark red that came off on his fingers. Abruptly, he couldn't stand being dirty anymore; it didn't matter that the blood was probably his own, since he recalled having a rather magnificent nosebleed. He needed to get it off of him.  
  
Harry scrambled out of bed rather gracelessly as his head and stomach both tried to turn themselves upside down and stumbled of to the boys' bathroom. Nobody would be there but him since those few others who had stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas vacation were usually all up by now. Breakfast was probably going on about now; he was guaranteed his privacy.  
  
He steadfastly refused to let himself look in the mirror and slowly undressed despite the protesting of much-abused muscles. He lowered himself into a steaming tub and soaked all of the blood, sweat, and grime off. He maintained a studiously blank mind throughout his bath. After all, the last thing he wanted to think about was...  
  
He winced and hauled himself out of the bath quickly, dressing as hurriedly as he could. As he made his way to the door, he couldn't help but glance in the mirror. The face that regarded him back was not the one he was used to calling his own. It was haggard and those sparkling green eyes that had been so widely admired were flat and hard. It reminded him of nothing quite so much as Sirius's face just after he had escaped from Azkaban. Sirius, however, had recovered somewhat and, at the moment, looked much better than Harry did.  
  
"Harry! Having a good time admiring your reflection, are you?" a familiar voice sneered at him from the doorway. Harry slowly turned toward a face that was twisted in grief and anger. The fire of Ron's hair almost seemed to have extended into his eyes and the flames consumed all hint of reason.  
  
"I'm so glad you've found some time for yourself this glorious morning. The reporters will be flocking to you later on, I'm sure, to get the story on how the Boy Who Lived has lived yet again and gotten another one of his friends killed! Maybe you'll get lucky and your own personal publicist, Rita Skeeter, will be there to get the 'exclusive story.'"  
  
Harry stared at Ron with a vague sadness but didn't lower his eyes from Ron's fiery gaze. Fire could not burn ice, and just as Ron was erupting into flames, Harry was hardening into ice. He gazed impassively as Ron continued his tirade.  
  
"Why did you do that? Or rather, why didn't you? You should have stopped it! It's all your fault, everything! You just lay there like a beaten dog, d'you know that? A beaten dog! You should have died instead of her!" Ron's anguished cry touched something deep inside of Harry, and he found the strength to respond.  
  
"I know I should have died...believe me, I know."  
  
~ * ~  
  
"You stupid prat!" Ginny felt like yelling, so she tried, even though nothing happened. The dead don't really sound like much to the living and nobody heard her. Oh, she heard herself, but it was insubstantial, meaningless, if the person she was yelling at hadn't the faintest clue of what was going on.  
  
She watched Ron as he paced back and forth in the boys dormitory, muttering derogatory things about Harry under his breath. How dare he say those things about Harry? How dare he think that her sacrifice was somehow Harry's fault? She had died to save him, but she wasn't getting the least bit of gratitude...she sighed. Ginny knew it was hard for him and that he missed her. Ron had always tended to express his really strong feelings as either embarrassment or anger; she supposed that the depth of his anger was a sort if backhanded compliment.  
  
"Please get over it, Ron," she whispered. "You and Harry need each other, and Hermione needs you both to be strong...Please..." But Ron took no notice.  
  
Just then, Harry entered the room slowly, cautiously, as if each movement might be the one that caused him to disintegrate into dust. Ron immediately spun on him and began to tell him off for coming into the room, for daring to show himself in Ron's presence, and finally, for Ginny's murder. Her anger mounted, but there was nothing she could do, so she held her tongue. There was a strange helplessness about being dead.  
  
At first, she thought that Harry was just going to stand there and take it, head bowed, but then he raised his face, and she gasped at the look in his eyes. She had loved those eyes, loved everything about him. Those beautiful eyes were the windows into everything he was. As she looked into them now, she saw that all he was, all he had become, was grief and a terrible guilt.  
  
"Please, Ron," he said gently and distantly, " I understand. I just want to be left alone. Please?"  
  
"No, I won't leave you alone!" Ron snapped obnoxiously back, "It was your fault she did that, you were the one who gave her all those crazy ideas about heroism, only you never got killed. Why is that? I never was with you at the end, you know. For all I know, you could be in league with You-Know-Who, and you're just trying to cover it all up." Ron plowed on, oblivious to the mounting rage in Harry's eyes. Ginny had never seen that look on his face before, and it scared her. She hadn't saved her brother's life only to have Harry kill him. But Harry seemed to keep control until Ron crossed the line in his ranting.  
  
"I bet you didn't care about her at all. She was just expendable, wasn't she? Death Eater fodder. Who cares about the little redhead girl? She's just another Weasley, and there are so many of them that people lose count..." He would have continued except that he suddenly found himself slammed up against a wall with Harry's hand around his throat. There was such madness in Harry's face that Ginny couldn't help herself – she screamed.  
  
And Harry, living Harry, who shouldn't have been able to hear her, dropped Ron gasping to the floor and looked around wildly.  
  
~ * ~  
  
The ice in his soul was melting from the heat of his rage. Harry knew deep inside that everything Ron said about the cause of Ginny's death was true. He was the only one to blame, but how could Ron ever suggest that he hadn't cared for Ginny? What gave him the right to make accusations like that? He didn't know anything!  
  
Before Harry knew it, he had Ron's neck in his hands and Ron was smashed up against a wall, his eyes dazed and shocked, but still hate- filled. Harry's hands tightened convulsively and Ron's face started to turn red.  
  
A shrill scream shattered the air.  
  
Harry dropped Ron and looked around wildly. There was no one who could have screamed, but it had sounded like it had come from within the room.  
  
"Where did that come from? Who screamed?" Harry asked frantically, telling himself that he wasn't starting to relive that night even when awake now.  
  
"Nobody bloody screamed! It certainly wasn't me, you were cutting off my air very nicely, thank you!" Ron replied. "I didn't hear a thing."  
  
"Somebody screamed, I heard it! It was a girl, it sounded...it sounded like Ginny."  
  
"Harry, you can't be serious. You know very well that she's dead," the last word was bitten off with a semblance of his former anger, but it wasn't as convincing since it was tinged with a significant amount of worry.  
  
"Ginny..." he whispered, turning around on the spot and scrutinizing the room as if he though she was hiding in a corner. Oh, how he wished she was!  
  
Ron was now looking at him as if he was seriously deranged. "Harry," he said hesitantly, and flinched when Harry spun to face him. He hadn't really given much thought to anyone's grief but his own until this point since he had been so wrapped up in his own mourning and anger, but the look in Harry's eyes was so lost that Ron was immediately more concerned for Harry than for himself.  
  
"Harry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean all those things I said," Ron muttered, and when Harry nodded vaguely and continued to search the room with his eyes, Ron gave up his last hope that this had been a ploy to get him to apologize. "Harry, she's gone. Come on, let's go find Hermione, she'll need a shoulder, too, probably..." Ron grabbed Harry's hand and began to tug him out the door, but Harry resisted. Finally, Harry allowed himself to be led out of the room like a small child, still looking over his shoulder as if he was leaving someone behind. 


	2. Deceptive Dreams

Disclaimer: Only the fabulous J. K. Rowling has any claim on the Harry Potter characters. The plot, however, is ALL MINE! Hehehe…make sure you remember that…hehehe…  
  
A/N Does anyone know how to get italics to stay when the story is uploaded? 'Cause if you do, I'd be eternally grateful to discover the trick. My Microsoft Word doesn't seem to have an option to save as a web page. Anyway, here it is, though with NO ITALICS! Grrrr….  
  
Chapter 2 ~ Deceptive Dreams  
  
Ron dragged Harry down to the Gryffindor common room where Parvati was comforting a distraught Hermione. Ron immediately crossed the room to Hermione's side, still obliviously towing Harry along, but once there, couldn't seem to come up with something to do with himself. Hermione continued to sob onto Parvati's shoulder obliviously and Ron extended a tentative hand and patted her comfortingly on the shoulder. She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes and immediately threw her arms around his neck, sobbing even harder. Harry stood silently watching them, emerging slightly from his hard shell of pain to sympathize with his two best friends. Ron had dropped his hand to catch Hermione as she flung herself at him and now stood with his arms around her, whispering comforting nothings to her. Harry almost smiled; Ron was actually very good at that sort of thing when he didn't think about embarrassment. As he gazed at them, his eyes seemed to cloud, and for one precious moment, Hermione's hair took on a reddish hue and her features fogged into a new configuration…  
  
Harry shook his head sharply and closed his eyes for a long moment; when he opened them again, Hermione only looked like Hermione. A sharp pain seemed to pierce his chest and he turned away slowly and ascended the stairs back to the boys' dormitory.  
  
~*~  
  
Ginny was overjoyed to see Harry returning to the dormitory. She had been too shocked that he had heard her to say anything further, and had also discovered that she couldn't leave the room upon attempting to follow Ron and Harry downstairs. She could move right up to the doorframe if she had no intention of trying to leave, but the moment the thought of exiting came into her mind, it felt as if she were trying to walk through glue. Typical. Nothing was easy, not even death. But when he entered the room, she knew she'd have another chance to talk to him and make sure that it wasn't a fluke.  
  
She watched him drag himself across the room and flop down on his bed, wondering how he had escaped from Ron. She walked across the room and stood over him as he lay there, marveling at the extent of his suffering. She hadn't known that he cared that much for her, and while she hated to see him suffer, she couldn't help feeling gratified somehow. Ginny wouldn't allow herself to believe that he had loved her, but he must have at least thought of her as a good friend.  
  
She realized that she was stalling. Ginny really didn't want to say anything. What if he didn't hear her? All her hopes would be crushed. But what if he did? Would it be better to live with the uncertainty or with the knowledge that he hadn't really heard her? She took a deep breath, although this had become completely unnecessary to her, and firmed her resolve. Was she a Gryffindor or not? Then a wry smile twisted her lips: "was" was definitely the key word.  
  
"Harry," she whispered to his closed eyes. Ginny received no response, however, as the exhausted boy had already fallen asleep.  
  
Sighing partly in disappointment and partly in relief, Ginny decided that her experiment would have to wait. She wouldn't have woken Harry up even if she could. He was exhausted and needed rest much more than she needed knowledge.  
  
Ginny sat down on the edge of the bed next to Harry and watched him sleeping. It was soothing for her, as she herself could no longer sleep. After a while, when her observance became less restful and more boring, she noticed that there was very little of her being supported by the bed. With a cry of delight, she got up and promptly sat back down again on thin air. She'd seen Peeves doing this occasionally, and she'd always wanted to try it. She sat there for a while with a big grin on her face practicing genie positions until Harry began to toss and turn in his sleep. His face was twisted in anguish and her heart went out to him. She moved close to him and, acting on an impulse, leaned down and kissed his forehead. It was something she'd never have had the courage to do in life, but she was secure now in the knowledge that he wouldn't notice at all. Insubstantiality had its advantages.  
  
~*~  
  
Just before the light connected, another redheaded figure transposed itself in the way of the curse. The light connected and a burst of evil flame blossomed...  
  
Brown eyes staring into his, trying to tell him...something – too late as the light flickered and died, leaving him in absolute darkness...  
  
~*~  
  
Harry found the dream suddenly cut off, as if a movie projector had broken down in the middle of a show. He wasn't awake, certainly, for this surreal landscape bore no resemblance to his shadowed dormitory.  
  
He stood in a sunlit clearing surrounded by soaring birches and flowering bushes in deep violet and blue. A stream cut across one side, burbling happily along and then pouring down a miniature waterfall into a picturesque pond. Water lilies in pink and white floated serenely and birdsong filled the air. A cool breeze caressed his face and the startling thought 'This is no dream…' crossed his mind.  
  
Harry heard a twig snap behind him and abruptly swung around to face someone he'd thought he would never see again. Her flaming hair danced in the breeze and her brown eyes stared into his with an expression of confusion and unease.  
  
"Harry?" Ginny said uncertainly. Harry could only stare blankly and wish he would never wake up, because this most certainly was a dream. "Oh, if only you could hear me…" she whispered, looking at him longingly.  
  
Harry felt as though he was drowning and didn't want to fight it. He was here (wherever here was) and Ginny was with him…his mind pulled up short at that point.  
  
"You're dead," Harry said in bewilderment.  
  
"You heard me! You can hear me! You can…you can see me? You can SEE me!"  
  
Harry opened and closed his mouth several times, and then nodded wordlessly. With a squeal of joy, Ginny threw herself at him and hugged him tightly. At first, Harry simply stood there in shock, but then he hugged her back, savoring the feeling of completion he felt with her in his arms. The hard vise of sorrow that had closed around his heart abruptly loosened and dissolved and he couldn't help a pair of tears escaping his eyes.  
  
Harry pulled away from her abruptly and gripped her shoulders tightly, gazing into Ginny's eyes intensely. "Tell me this is real," he said flatly. "Please, tell me it's real."  
  
There was such quiet desperation in his voice that Ginny was stunned and a little frightened. She had seen his grief, but she had no idea he had missed her this much. She silently nodded her head a little and answered him.  
  
"It's real, but not in the sense we both want it to be. I know I'm not really here, simply because you can see and hear me. But I, as in my consciousness, am definitely here. This is really me, just as you are really you, if you catch my meaning," Ginny smiled sheepishly and hoped he would understand.  
  
Harry nodded thoughtfully as he digested her words, his eyes never leaving hers. "But how did you get here? You're dead," His forehead crinkled in perplexity and Ginny noticed how his voice trembled on the last word.  
  
"Well," she said bashfully, "I'm not de– " But her words were cut off as the world swirled into a blur and faded into black.  
  
~*~  
  
Harry came awake with a jolt, sitting up abruptly, and scaring Ron almost out of his wits. Ron had been shaking his shoulder and the violence of his awakening belied the gentleness which had been used.  
  
"Sheesh, Harry, it's just me! Calm down!" Ron said wearily and backed away, rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache. For the first time since the attack, Harry's gaze was clear and focused and, at the moment, tinged with concern.  
  
"Sorry. How are you? And how's Hermione?" Harry asked in a quiet voice.  
  
"Oh, we're ok, I guess. 'Mione just finally went to sleep. She was up all night, according to Parvati. How did you sleep, anyway? Lavender said you were having nightmares and she couldn't wake you."  
  
Harry smiled inwardly at both the 'we' and the nickname, and answered, "Yeah, I was having some pretty awful dreams last night. But hey, I'm used to it by now."  
  
"Oh, yeah," Ron shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I thought you'd better come down to breakfast, get some food, you know. And Dumbledore wants to see all three of us afterward."  
  
Harry nodded and said, "But isn't Hermione sleeping? We shouldn't wake her; she was up all night—"  
  
"And we're not going to!" Ron cut him off fiercely. "She's going to get as much sleep as she can and Dumbledore's just going to have to make do with us."  
  
Harry nodded his agreement and rolled out of bed stiffly. He stretched and eyed Ron with an evil grin. "So what's with all this sudden interest in Hermione, hmmm? I notice you didn't have a problem with waking me up!"  
  
Ron turned bright red and looked at the floor. "Feeling better, are you?" he muttered sullenly.  
  
Harry nodded as they walked into the common room and through the portrait hole. "Though I'd be better if you hadn't woken me up," he added.  
  
Ron raised his eyebrows. "Good dream or death wish?" he asked.  
  
"A very good dream. Ginny was in it and she told me," he turned to Ron with a blissful smile on his face, "she told me she's not dead."  
  
"Yeah, that must've been a good dream. Wish it was real..." Ron's voice trailed off wistfully.  
  
"Ron," Harry said slowly, "I think it is true. I've got loads of experience with true dreams, what with Voldemort and all, and that's what this felt like. I think she's not really dead!"  
  
"Harry," Ron said in the same careful manner, "Ginny is definitely dead. She," he swallowed convulsively, "she fell onto me. She was dead, and a dream isn't going to change that, no matter how much we wish it."  
  
Harry shook his head stubbornly. "She's not dead, Ron. She told me herself." There was an angry glint in Harry's eye, and Ron couldn't help but remember when Harry had slammed him into the wall. He backed off and decided to let Harry keep his delusions for the time being.  
  
The two boys ate breakfast in silence, ignoring the looks they attracted. Most were pitying but some, in the case of the Slytherins, were frankly triumphant. Harry and Ron both simply concentrated on their food and left as quickly as they could. They walked quickly through the halls towards Professor Dumbledore's office.  
  
When they reached the statue that guarded the entrance, it leaped aside to reveal Professor McGonagall, who gestured at them to follow silently. They accompanied her into the Headmaster's office and sat down across from his desk wearily. Both had the subject of their summons in mind and were staring at the floor. Professor Dumbledore was busily writing something, and it was several minutes before he acknowledged their presence. When he looked up, the familiar twinkle was noticeably absent from his gaze and his eyes were rather hard.  
  
"First," Dumbledore said gravely, "let me say that I am deeply grieved by the loss of Virginia Weasely. She was a wonderful girl and a tribute to the wizarding world. Let me next say that I am extremely disappointed in both of you and in Hermione, whom I assume has a good reason for not being here?" He paused with an inquisitive note in his voice. Harry took that as a cue to respond, even though he felt as if he was about an inch tall.  
  
"Hermione didn't sleep all night and she was just dozing when we left. We didn't want to wake her," Harry said apologetically.  
  
"We figured that you wouldn't mind since she was so tired," Ron chimed in a bit defensively.  
  
Dumbledore nodded in acquiescence and continued, "I am extremely disappointed in you three for sneaking off of the school grounds, in the middle of the night, no less! Rules are in place for a reason, and that reason is to keep all of you safe. Those rules were disobeyed and a life was lost. Is that enough of a deterrent for you three, or must more sacrifices be made for your good times?"  
  
Harry was shifting guiltily in his seat, trying in his mind to escape from the Headmaster's hurtful words, but it was true. It had been his fault. Ron simply sat like a stature and wouldn't meet the Professor's eyes. Suddenly, Harry sat up straighter.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, um, there's something I need to tell you," Harry said, ignoring Ron's frantic attempts to silence him. "Ginny's not really dead." He glared at Ron as he received a kick in the shins. Quickly, he explained to a confused Dumbledore about his dream and what Ginny had told him.  
  
The Headmaster listened patiently, and, when he was finished, said, "I will think about what you have told me, Harry. Keep in mind, however, that some things may not be what they appear. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to have a word with Mr. Weasley alone."  
  
Harry got up and left, secure in the knowledge that Professor Dumbledore knew what was going on.  
  
~*~  
  
Ron looked questioningly at Professor Dumbledore and the Professor looked sadly back. The silence stretched ever longer until Dumbledore asked, "How was Harry acting last night as opposed to this morning?"  
  
Ron looked even more puzzled. "I wasn't really, ummm...thinking all too clearly last night, but...he seemed really depressed and kind of cut off from everything. Then this morning," Ron debated whether to tell Dumbledore about his and Harry's argument and decided that he'd better. "Well, this morning, I guess I was kind of blaming Harry for –" he swallowed and couldn't continue. "I was blaming Harry and he kind of snapped on me, shoved me into a wall – I deserved it, mind you, so please don't punish him – but then he just dropped me and asked who screamed. He said it sounded like Ginny," Ron's voice had gotten hushed at the name and he paused to compose himself. Then he opened his eyes and went on. "I didn't hear anything, but he seemed serious. He was all upset, and didn't want to leave the room, like he thought she was there. Then he fell asleep later, and when I woke him up, he actually seemed happy, and he kept telling me that Ginny was alive. I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen," Ron spread his arms in helplessness.  
  
Dumbledore was frowning fiercely and Ron couldn't help but be worried by his response. "Professor? Something's wrong and Harry's my best friend; I'd like to know," he said with determined bravery.  
  
The Headmaster snapped out of his reverie and looked at Ron with something that might have been pity. "Ron, you and your friends have just had a very distressing experience and some people deal with these things differently than others. It's possible that Harry has just had too much to deal with and, in a sense, lost touch with reality."  
  
Ron looked at him with wide eyes. "You think Harry's gone crazy."  
  
~*~  
  
A/N Whew, I had no idea that would take so long, sorry to anyone who was waiting, and I do intend to continue this to completion. It might take a while between school and various illnesses that seem to be tracking me, but I guarantee, it will be finished! Thanks so much to my reviewers. I love reviews! So...special thanks to Virginia Lake, Julephenia, ummm... 'Winddance' (get your own screenname, 'cause you know I'm gonna make you keep reviewing! Luv ya!), Veldan (ha! That other one's not gonna get up for a very long time!), Bucky, and Yes I am a Bitch. Wow. Did I mention that I love reviews? 


	3. Spirit Blade

Disclaimer: Oh, the joys of stealing J.K. Rowling's characters...  
  
A/N I...am...going...to...cry. I'm feeling very unloved as of RIGHT NOW! I only got three reviews for my second chapter! *sob* If there are people who are reading this and not reviewing...well, you're just...not...nice...yeah, that's right...not nice...but you people who did review are wonderful!..definitely... thanks ever so much!...I'm gonna stop with the little dots now...maybe...I think...or maybe not...I scare me...  
  
Chapter 3 ~ Spirit Blade  
  
After Harry was banished from Dumbledore's office, he roamed the corridors restlessly, feeling an undefined sense of urgency and unsure how to appease it. He shook his head angrily and reminded himself that there was nothing he could do at the moment about Ginny; the matter was in Dumbledore's capable hands. He sped up as if trying to leave his troublesome emotions behind and soon was moving at a respectable clip. Mrs. Norris glared at him with her lamp-like eyes from the doorway to an empty classroom, but didn't bother him. Perhaps, he thought wryly, it was because of his purposeful stride and lack of the furtiveness usually shown by students in unoccupied parts of the school.  
  
That thought brought him up short. Unoccupied parts of the school? He'd walked right out of the area he was familiar with and into a rather grimy corridor. Beams of sunlight illuminated scores of tiny dust motes that danced in the breeze of his passing. Doors on either side of the corridor led into disused classrooms that were as echoingly empty as the hallway itself, all devoid of any pictures, suits of armor, or desks. Harry looked behind him, and the corridor seemed to stretch off into infinity. With a shrug of his shoulders, Harry continued along the hall with a slight smile upon his lips; this was just the sort of thing he needed to take his mind off of things. Maybe he'd find a secret passage that Fred and George had missed, or something equally interesting. He decided not to take out the Marauders' Map, which he had permanently stashed in the pocket of his robes, until he absolutely needed to get back to the others.  
  
Harry walked down the corridor, carefully looking for something interesting; he didn't see anything. It was just nothing...and nothing...and more nothing. (A/N There I go with the little dots again...*grin*) With a frown, Harry turned around and began to walk back, deciding that he could find somewhere more interesting to explore elsewhere. And so he walked...and walked...and walked through the unchanging scenery. After he'd walked for almost half an hour and was still in that barren hallway, he started to suspect something fishy. He stopped and glanced around carefully. Everything looked familiar: the doors, the emptiness, the walls, the floors...his mind stalled as his eyes took in the stones under his feet. Many lines of crisp, fresh footprints passed by in the layer of dust upon the floor. He placed his foot inside one of the imprints with trepidation, and sure enough, it was a perfect fit. Was it possible that he'd been walking the same stretch of perfectly straight corridor over and over?  
  
The Marauders' Map was clearly in order. He whipped it out of his pocket, activated it, and scanned it to ascertain his position. Another shock lay in wait for him on the parchment. He wasn't there. The map stated that he was nowhere in Hogwarts. Either he had ceased to exist, or he was somewhere that even the infamous Marauders hadn't known of. He put the map slowly back into his pocket, as it clearly was going to be of no help, and turned around in a slow circle, surveying the endless lines of footprints that stretched in either direction.  
  
With a growl and a curse directed at dark magic, which Harry was sure must be at work, he tore his feet from their old path and ducked into one of the barren classrooms. It almost seemed as if a spectral laugh echoed through the desolate air. Thinking of recent events, Harry couldn't help but wonder. He wouldn't discount anything as merely his imagination anymore.  
  
The classroom was bare except for a grand wooden cabinet sitting in state at one end. Intricate carvings were incised in the dark reddish wood and, fascinated, Harry crept closer to inspect them. However, he soon wished he hadn't for they all seemed to be representations of vengeful spirits who pursued unlucky mortals to their deaths. The carvings, when followed to the end, inevitably showed the spirit with a long sword protruding from its chest and the mortal, while usually maimed or scarred in some way, on the whole seemed to get away alive.  
  
Harry was thoroughly engrossed in the pictures until a soft chuckle echoed behind him. Startled, he spun around quickly to confront a Hogwarts ghost whom he had never encountered before lounging indolently on the air. She was tiny, coming perhaps up to Harry's waist, and had long silvery hair that brushed the floor even from her elevated position. Transparently feathered wings fanned the air indolently and childish eyes stared up at him with a sickly green glow in their depths.  
  
"I was wondering when somebody was going to show up for it," she said with a cute pout. "It's been lonely here." It was obvious that she'd been rather young when she died. Harry estimated she'd been the age of a first or second year, and wondered why she'd died at all and why the green in her eyes was so familiar.  
  
"Um...what's 'it'?" Harry asked, still staring at her in amazement and contemplating the hidden mysteries of Hogwarts.  
  
"You're here to get it and you don't even know what it is? That's weird! I suppose if you want to find out, you'll just have to go and open the cabinet. It's in there," The green in her eyes flashed brighter and the expression on her face was challenging. Harry shrugged and headed for the cabinet; he didn't see any problem with humoring her. After all, she was a ghost—what could she do to him? He reached for the handle to the cabinet.  
  
His hand faltered and stopped as a sudden vision of his fingers and Cedric's reaching out to grasp the Triwizard Cup invaded his mind. At that moment, a strangled shriek sounded behind him and he turned to see the little girl's eyes change from a pale green to regular translucent white and then blaze to a startling evil-looking emerald. Her little hands were clenched in fists and her face was twisted into a grotesque mask of agony. Suddenly, Harry remembered where he'd seen that color before.  
  
It was the shade of the death spell, Avada Kedavra, that he'd seen so many times in his dreams.  
  
He backed away from her in horror. What was going on? But the color was fading from her eyes as she fought it down, gasping and apparently exhausted.  
  
"Don't!" she panted. "Don't open the cabinet by the handle. Don't touch the handle! Port—" But she never finished as the emerald once more invaded her eyes and she writhing in agony.  
  
She must have meant that the handle was a port-key, Harry decided as he looked in dismay at the battle being waged. That was why he'd remembered the Triwizard Cup. The green faded again and she screamed, "Take it now!"  
  
Take 'it', but don't touch the handle...Harry gazed at the cabinet in confusion for a second and then snorted in disgust at himself. He set his fingernails in the crack at the bottom of the doors and levered them open with little difficulty. Inside was a single shelf made of a matte black material and on it lay a long sword that shimmered with an otherworldly quality. Harry had little trouble identifying it as the sword in the carvings. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that the ghost's face was a blank mask and her eyes held a burning green fire. She had a faint sickly green aura and was advancing on him step by step. He hurriedly grabbed the sword by the hilt and made a dive for the door to his left. As he crossed the threshold, sword in hand, the winged girl collapsed in a heap and the light left her eyes completely. She looked up at him pitifully through locks of draggled hair and whispered, "Sorry about that."  
  
"Are you all right now?" Harry asked, concerned that his presence had put her through so much, even if she was already dead.  
  
"Yes, I'll be fine. I failed and They won't have any other use for me now, I suppose. They'll probably release me soon. You'll be able to leave now, too," she replied, seeming years older and sadder than when he first met her. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but she shook her head firmly and pointed down the hall. "You don't want to be here when They come to release me."  
  
~*~  
  
Ron and Hermione sat silently in the common room, both lost in their own thoughts. After the interview with Dumbledore, Ron had rushed back to Gryffindor tower to inform Hermione of the situation and find Harry, as he'd been warned not to allow Harry to wander about by himself. They'd all been excused from classes on the grounds of emotional trauma, and so were without supervision. Ron had thought he'd been lucky to find Hermione alone (she'd been doing schoolwork in the common room; no surprise there); he hadn't wanted to say anything in front of Harry. Now, however, he would have been thrilled to find Harry in Hermione's company.  
  
Harry was missing. Ron and Hermione had looked all over the castle: in classrooms, the Great Hall, the kitchens, the dungeons…everywhere. The Marauders' Map would've been a great help, Ron though wryly, if it hadn't been in Harry's possession. After the search had proved fruitless, they'd gone to Dumbledore and begged him to perform a searching spell on the castle. Hermione had been quite put out when hers had rebounded because of anti-magic spells in the walls. Not only had it failed, the backlash had made her unable to find anything, including herself, for almost an hour. It would have been very funny if they both hadn't been so worried and sad. Apparently, only the Headmaster had the ability to work magic that affected Hogwarts itself.  
  
Dumbledore went them one better and included the grounds, Hogsmeade, and the Forbidden Forest in the spell. But this came to naught, as well. It simply dissipated as if Harry didn't exist. At this point, Ron had gotten a sick feeling in his stomach. The searching spell should have worked even if Harry was invisible, unconscious, or even dead. He hastily excused himself and Hermione from the professors' deliberations and they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower to nurse their worries in private.  
  
"Maybe he's fallen in the lake?" Ron ventured. Hermione glared at him and he shrugged apologetically. "You never know, Dumbledore could have left the lake out of the spell." Hermione's lips thinned and she abruptly got up and stalked towards the portrait hole.  
  
"Where are you going now?" Ron yelled after her.  
  
"I'm going to do a searching spell on the lake. I might not be able to do one on this stupid castle, but I can bloody well do one on a lake and a giant squid." She slammed the portrait shut behind her, startling the Fat Lady, who scolded her retreating back shrilly. About ten seconds later, the portrait was slammed closed again as Ron went tearing after Hermione and the Fat Lady was left complaining about indecency and inconsiderate children to the empty air.  
  
~*~  
  
Almost immediately after he left the ghost-child, Harry found himself in familiar surroundings once again. Portraits on the walls waved merrily to him and the air was dust free. He might have thought he was hallucinating if not for the magnificent blade he held in his hand. It was strange, he reflected, that he always seemed to come up with swords. He must have some sort of affinity for them. He vaguely considered actually learning how to use one as he examined the hilt of the sword. It was decorated with twining designs and seemed to have something written in elegant runes. The pommel had a design that closely resembled a Celtic knot. He followed the line with his eyes, but it just kept going and he finally had to jerk his eyes away from it to avoid being hypnotized. Hearing the laughter of students approaching, Harry ducked into another classroom. He didn't think it was a very good idea for anyone to see him carrying around a huge sword. They'd probably start rumors that Voldemort was prowling the school and Harry was hunting him down to get his final vengeance.  
  
Once there, he continued to scrutinize the weapon. The blood red leather sheath was hard and cracked with age. Harry had to be very careful when he withdrew the blade from it. Even the strange circumstances of its acquisition had not prepared him for the shock of the blade. It was transparent and glowing, as if it was a ghost itself, and was inscribed with more runes of the same kind as those on the hilt. He wished desperately right now that he'd taken Ancient Runes instead of worthless Divination. He'd have to get Hermione to take a look at it and translate for him. He reached out a tentative hand to touch the blade, and gaped when his hand went right through the blade and came out the other side unscathed.  
  
Harry scowled. It was obviously a magic sword, but what good was a sword that just went through everything? He tested it again by swinging it at a desk, and sure enough, it went right through with no resistance. What fun was that? Shaking his head, Harry went to resheath the sword, thinking that he needn't have been so careful with the sheath since the blade was insubstantial. The edge nicked the red leather and the aged material acquired another notch in its surface. Harry stared at the sheath, and wondered why the sword blade was tangible to the sheath and nothing else. The mystery of the whole thing irked him.  
  
With the sword safely back in its scabbard and the students dispersed to their next classes, Harry made his way back to Gryffindor tower.  
  
~*~  
  
The restriction would have been killing Ginny if she hadn't already been dead. She was bored and frustrated with her location and thoroughly disgusted that, as a ghost, she got stuck in a boys' dormitory. What was the point of that? And why on earth did she go there— a boys' dormitory? She couldn't make sense of it, and it annoyed her to no end. To make things worse, she was very embarrassed to be there when the boys changed, but she couldn't very well leave. Ginny didn't watch, of course, but it was still distressing, especially when Harry was getting changed and this insistent little voice was telling her to turn around, just a peek, and he'd never know...Ginny was frankly shocked by herself, but she couldn't deny the temptation. She resisted the impulse firmly, however.  
  
Ginny remembered so much of Harry that it hurt to think of him. Everyone was grieving for her death, but she was grieving as if for theirs. They had no idea she was here and would simply move on and continue their lives. She would be forced to sit in this room for eternity, or however long ghosts stayed around, and watch them forget about her. If Harry, Ron, and Hermione forgot about her, she'd die, or would if she hadn't already. She was having a little trouble with that...she didn't feel dead. She especially hadn't last night when she'd gotten sucked into Harry's dream. It had been wonderful, and Harry really had a beautiful mind. Maybe she'd be able to do it again and he wouldn't forget about her.  
  
Harry...she let her mind sink into contemplation of him, as it had so many times in life. She remembered vividly the day she'd lost her absurd little infatuation with him. She'd been doing a project with a Ravenclaw in the library, and Harry had walked in. The girl had been pathetic, following him constantly with her eyes, blushing, knocking things over. Then, of course, she'd made the awful mistake of trying to get Ginny into a conversation about Harry's virtues. She'd blathered on about how he was soooo brave, soooo handsome, soooo this, soooo that...Ginny had been disgusted with her. He wasn't some kind of paragon, he was just a human being, if an exceptional one. He didn't seek celebrity, or particularly want it, so why should he want a fan club? She'd grabbed her books and stalked out of the library but stopped short as a thought struck her. That was how she used to act; why didn't she anymore? The answer was simple, really. She didn't have a stupid schoolgirl crush on Harry anymore. She'd fallen in love with him.  
  
It was quite a relief, actually, since she'd been able to stop blushing and knocking stuff over when he was around. She'd integrated herself into their little group; it wasn't hard since she was Ron's sister (even though he complained about her constantly) and had formed a friendship with Hermione. Harry had been skeptical about including her, but after he'd seen that she wasn't acting like a bimbo anymore, he'd been fine with it, and they'd even become friends. Good friends, Ginny reflected, by the way he'd been acting. At that moment, a crash from the common room startled her out of her thoughts.  
  
~*~  
  
A/N Got this one out quicker, didn't I? I believe that there are SOME people out there who haven't even read the second chapter yet...(*cough* Veldan! *cough*)...but I won't name names, now will I? That's ok, you're forgiven. Anyway, I hope you guys like it...and I know that the "Ginny falling in love with Harry" scene is kind of trite (*wince*) but I couldn't help it. He couldn't be in love with her if she was still acting like a little bimbo, could he? Right, that's what I thought. *grin* And guess what? I'm sixteen tomorrow!  
  
One last little note: I'm probably going to be reposting this whole thing just as soon as my boyfriend shows me how to get the italics going, and hopefully that will make it easier to understand the ghost and dream sequences.  
  
Thanks to my THREE reviewers for this chapter:  
  
Bucky: Is this soon enough? Glad you liked it!  
  
Julephenia: Are you sure? *grin* Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Mike: Wow, you read my bio, too? I'm gonna faint! Thanks! I feel so flattered...*blush*  
  
And for the final reviewer of my first chapter whom I didn't get to include in the first chapter credits:  
  
jade: If you're still reading this, I'd love it if you would tell me why you thought the story sucked. Is it just a personal peeve with the plot? Too melodramatic? What could I do to make it better? Anyway, thanks, 'cause being called a good writer is the ultimate compliment for me. 


	4. Love at the Lake

Disclaimer: IT'S MINE, ALL MINE!!!!! Well, maybe not all of it, exactly...ok, so not all that much is mine...but some of it is! Not the characters, no...or the setting...or really much of anything...aw, darn...can I just keep the plot, please? Pretty please? With a cherry on top? YAY! I can keep the plot! Um...I had way too much fun with that...  
  
A/N: I wrote most of this chapter in health class while I was supposed to be watching a stupid movie, or in the morning at 4:00, or in the few minutes before a class started, or really late at night when I wasn't supposed to be up...so I just hope everyone is grateful and showers me with lovely reviews! Wonderful things, reviews....(hint, hint!) And, due to the circumstances of my writing...if anyone catches a contradiction or something in there...let me know and I'll try to fix it later on!  
  
Chapter 4 ~ Love at the Lake  
  
Harry had been sitting on the couch in the Gryffindor common room for almost half an hour by the time Ron and Hermione returned. They both looked discouraged and Ron was soaking wet and shivering.  
  
"Where've you two been? And what happened to you, Ron?" Harry was a little surprised when they both jumped like they'd seen a ghost and then ran over and started hugging him. They were babbling so fast that he couldn't understand a word. When they finally calmed down and started talking understandably again, he gathered that they hadn't been able to locate him for a rather long time, even with the help of Dumbledore. Harry's brow furrowed and he told them about his strange experience with the Marauders' Map.  
  
"I just thought it was because I was in a part of the castle that the Marauders never found, but I guess that might not have been it," Harry concluded.  
  
"A part of the castle that the Marauders never explored? Not bloody likely!" Ron replied.  
  
"So where were you?" Hermione said in exasperation. "We looked everywhere for you! I even did a searching spell on the giant squid in case you'd been eaten." She rolled her eyes expressively.  
  
"Oh, I see," Harry said in sudden understanding. "So that's how Ron got wet. But how'd you manage to fall in the lake?" Harry directed the last part of his statement to Ron.  
  
To his surprise, Ron turned a fiery shade of red and Hermione started fidgeting. Both remained silent.  
  
"Oh, come on, you're going to tell me. Just spit it out!" Harry teased. Ron turned even redder and Hermione muttered an inaudible response.  
  
"What's that?" Harry asked loudly. "Didn't hear you!"  
  
"I pushed him in!" Hermione yelled, looking up angrily.  
  
"You what?!" Harry's mouth fell open. That was the last thing he'd expected to hear. Perhaps a row with Malfoy or something...  
  
"He tried to kiss me!" Hermione said defensively.  
  
"'Mione! You didn't have to tell him that!" Ron shouted over Harry's howls of laughter.  
  
"Don't you ''Mione' me! It was completely inappropriate; we were supposed to be looking for Harry."  
  
Ron turned, if possible, even redder and looked as if he was about to bolt for the stairs. Harry got up and casually walked between Ron and the stairs on the pretense of examining a painting, still chuckling. Both Ron and Hermione glared at him suspiciously, but he merely gave them a look of sunny innocence.  
  
"So, Hermione, you pushed him in the lake because that kiss was inappropriate, correct?" Harry asked and Hermione nodded warily. "So that means that you didn't push him because you didn't like it?" Harry let his words trail off suggestively. Hermione was, for once, speechless and merely stood there gaping. Ron looked as if he was about to explode from combined embarrassment and hope.  
  
"Um, H-Harry," Ron stuttered, "I'm g-going to go and ch-change clothes, ok?"  
  
"Nope, I don't think so, you're staying right here. How much of your time I take up is entirely up to you and Hermione."  
  
"What do you mean?" Ron asked, clearly bewildered.  
  
Harry smirked and discovered that it could be a very fun expression. No wonder Malfoy used it so often. "Well, I'm found, aren't I? That means that you can kiss Hermione and it won't be 'inappropriate.'"  
  
"Oh, no! No way, I've learned my lesson, don't worry, Hermione," Ron said, backing away from her as if she was going to hex him. Although Ron missed the fleeting look of disappointment on her face, Harry certainly didn't. He was determined that it wouldn't stay there. His two best friends, and Ron especially, deserved some happiness after everything that had happened recently. And, while he was at it, he could have some fun at their expense with the assurance that they'd thank him for it later. He grinned, "I know you agree with me, Hermione. It's not inappropriate anymore, is it?"  
  
"Well, I um... I suppose, er, well, I suppose not...exactly...in that way, that is...like that...um..." Hermione was turning red now as well, but she actually looked a little hopeful.  
  
"There you have it. Go on, Ron, or I'll hex you into oblivion," Harry threatened, but he felt like his face was about to split from grinning so much. Ron shivered, though that could just have been because he was dripping with ice-cold lake water. He shot Harry a murderous glance that promised revenge later on and Harry urged, "Go on!"  
  
"Harry..." Ron shifted uncomfortably and looked back and forth between Harry and Hermione uncertainly.  
  
"You're going to stay here in those wet clothes forever if you don't..." Harry trailed off menacingly. Ron looked at Hermione in mute appeal and Harry added, "And Hermione, if you leave, I'm just going to keep Ron here in the common room until you come back and he kisses you. You wouldn't want to do that to him, now would you?" Hermione looked at Ron and shrugged helplessly. Ron glanced at Harry, then at Hermione, and then at his soaking robes and back again. With slow steps he approached her and took a deep breath.  
  
"Understand, this is all Harry's idea. You're not going to slap me or anything, right?"  
  
"Um, well..." Hermione suddenly got a teasing glint in her eye, "I don't know. I guess you'll just have to find out."  
  
Ron gulped, then with a look of fierce determination, leaned forward and kissed Hermione quickly on the lips. Then he dodged Harry and ran for the stairs as if his life depended on it. Hermione simply stood there with a dreamy, far-away look on her face. It had actually been easier than he'd expected, but neither of them had really fought very hard, probably because they'd both wanted to do it anyway. Harry laughed and patted Hermione, who was still looking dazed, sympathetically on the shoulder. He imagined that he'd look like that if he'd been kissed by...  
  
Suddenly, there came a loud thump from the direction of the stairs and then Ron slid back down them. Both Harry and Hermione ran to him. He was unconscious and pale but didn't seem to have suffered any worse than some bumps and bruises. Harry levitated him gently onto the couch by the fire and then looked at him in complete bewilderment. Ron wasn't really that clumsy usually. Hermione, being the practical one, whipped out her wand and said, "Enervate!" Ron blinked owlishly, looked around slowly, stared at the stairs to the dorm, and then promptly passed out again. Hermione and Harry looked at him in consternation, looked at each other, and then Harry conjured a stretcher while Hermione ran to open the portrait hole for him. Within moments, they were on their way to the hospital wing.  
  
Madam Pomfrey gave both them and Ron strange looks as she bustled about muttering quietly. She poured a bright purple potion down Ron's throat which caused steam to drift lazily up from his lips and then took out her wand and muttered "Enervate!" This time, Ron's eyes stayed open even though they looked more than a bit wild. He immediately spit out a stream of curses that made Madame Pomfrey say, "Mr. Weasley!" and Hermione quickly shushed him.  
  
"Ron! What happened? Did you trip or something?" Hermione asked worriedly.  
  
"I'm going bloody insane!" Ron yelled. He grabbed Harry's arm and told him quite seriously, "Harry, get Dumbledore and tell him to check me into St. Mungo's immediately. And see if he can get me one of those nice, white, padded rooms, too."  
  
"Why d'you think you're going insane?" Harry asked. "What happened?"  
  
"You're not going to believe me," Ron warned, shaking his head slowly. "You're definitely not going to believe me. I don't believe me, so why should you?"  
  
"Just tell us!" Hermione practically shouted, losing patience with him.  
  
"I saw her," Ron said deliberately. "She was sitting in the dorm on Harry's bed."  
  
"Who? Do you have a girlfriend, Harry?" Hermione asked.  
  
"No," Harry replied in bewilderment. Why would a girl be sitting on his bed? And why would that cause Ron to fall down the stairs? "Who was it, Ron?"  
  
"Ginny."  
  
~*~  
  
Moments later, Harry was running through the halls back to the boys' dormitory with little remembrance of how he got there. His mind was alight with exultation. He had been right and Ginny was alive and currently waiting in his dorm. He sped up.  
  
Harry skidded around a corner and almost plowed into McGonagall. He managed to stop himself in time, but just barely. Professor McGonagall looked shocked.  
  
"Mr. Potter! Will you please contain yourself?! There is to be no running in the hallways. Now, Headmaster Dumbledore sent me to fetch you, so if you'll please follow me at a reasonable pace..." She started off toward Dumbledore's office without even checking to see if he was following, straightening her hat, which had been knocked askew when she had jumped back to avoid Harry.  
  
Harry was practically frantic. He couldn't wait to see Ginny; what if she decided no one was coming and left? He had missed her too much to put off seeing her. And not only that, but the great guilt which rested on his soul would be lifted.  
  
"Professor!" he called out after her retreating back. "I can't come; there's something very urgent that I have to do first."  
  
Professor McGonagall turned around and glared down at him. "The wishes of the Headmaster take precedence over yours, Mr. Potter, and what he wishes is to speak with you. You will come and speak with him, whether you want to or not." Harry gathered that this was not a social call. He looked around for some escape route, but then decide that not only was there not any way open to him, it probably wasn't a very good idea to get the Headmaster angry with him for something so trivial. Dumbledore was already upset enough with him...he cringed at the thought of his last interview and obediently followed McGonagall.  
  
McGonagall muttered the password so that Harry couldn't hear, which Harry thought rather odd, as no one had bothered to conceal it before. Then she stood aside for Harry to enter, which he did with some trepidation. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk and obviously expecting him. There was no paperwork in front of him and there was a rather large audience in attendance. However, none of them were living. Nearly- Headless Nick looked at him gravely, as did the Fat Friar and the Gray Lady, the Ravenclaw ghost. Even the Bloody Baron's sightless stare contained a little concern. Peeves and Moaning Myrtle were in attendance, as well, and there were several other ghosts that Harry didn't recognize. One sported a mohawk and looked at him with disdain, while another seemed to be a sweet little girl in a party dress who smiled with guileless innocence. A motherly lady looked at everyone with wordless compassion and concern and a kingly man stood beside her in an attitude of protection.  
  
"Harry," Dumbledore said softly to regain his attention. "Harry, the ghosts of Hogwarts have brought a strange occurrence to my attention and your disappearance earlier leads me to believe that you might hold the answers. Could you tell me where you were when you disappeared earlier?" When Harry hesitated, since he didn't know exactly where he'd been, Dumbledore misinterpreted his silence and continued, "This information is so important that if you were somewhere outside the rules, I promise you will not be punished." There was almost a kind of desperation in the old man's face and Harry decided to describe his experience as best he could. Perhaps the information was important and Dumbledore could tell him more about the sword.  
  
"I was just walking and I don't quite know where I was. I'd lost track and no matter how far I walked, it didn't seem as if I was getting anywhere. When I turned around to go back, it was the same and I never got back to the regular castle," Harry paused and considered telling him about the strange behavior of the Marauders' Map, but decided that he didn't want Dumbledore to know about the map, if he didn't already. If he did, he would ask about it. "I looked down and my footprints went over the same spot over and over for as far as I could see, so I figured that there was magic and I was going in circles. I went into a classroom and..." Harry told him all about the winged ghost and the sword and the eerie green light in her eyes. Dumbledore looked both more concerned and more joyful with every new revelation. "So, Professor, do you know what happened? I'm really confused," Harry concluded.  
  
"Harry, you've once again surprised both me and probably everyone else in the wizarding world. That sword you found is a very old and rare relic that many fully trained witches and wizards were completely unable to locate, if, of course, I'm not mistaken, and the testimony of the ghosts hints that I'm not. I'd like to take a look at this sword of yours, if you don't mind. Where did you leave it?"  
  
"By the couch in the common room. Ron fell down the stairs and I guess I just forgot about it," Harry said, embarrassed by his negligence with something Dumbledore said was quite valuable.  
  
"Ah, well, no harm done, as the students are all still in classes. Unless, of course, some enterprising Gryffindor decided to cut class and then say they thought it was still Christmas vacation." Dumbledore smiled nostalgically. "I've had that one used more times than I can count. I'll send someone to go fetch it."  
  
Dumbledore snapped his fingers and the small, servile, and very ugly form of a house elf appeared with a pop by his desk. "Would you please go to the Gryffindor common room and retrieve the sword which is lying on the table next to the couch in front of the fire? Once you have located it, bring it here immediately." The house elf disappeared with another pop and Dumbledore looked at Harry apologetically. "Bubo isn't the smartest of house elves, so I have to be very specific with him, but don't worry, he'll be back soon."  
  
Sure enough, Bubo appeared again holding the rather large sword with difficulty and presented it to Professor Dumbledore, beaming with his accomplishment. Professor Dumbledore thanked him profusely and then sent him back to his regular work. The Headmaster was immediately engrossed in the runes on the hilt, muttering to himself in delight. It was then that Harry witnessed the intense love of knowledge that had prompted Albus Dumbledore to stay at Hogwarts for so very long. Finally, he looked up at Harry, beaming.  
  
"I suppose you'll be wanting to know some things about your sword. I don't suppose you can read the runes? No, no, of course not, I believe you take Divination as your elective? Right, these runes on the hilt read 'Phantasma im Eraddia' which, in literal translation, means 'End of Spirits.' These designs here are binding spells which can be used at will on any creature associated with the spirit world, which would include ghosts, demons, many magical beasts such as unicorns, and even," his eyes twinkled mischievously, "poltergeists." Peeves looked very alarmed at that and ran to hide behind Nick.  
  
"This sword," Dumbledore continued, "was created by a very powerful wizard in America at about the time of the Salem Witch Trials. While most of the witch hunts were indeed hysteria, there were some demons who specialized in possession and found fertile ground in the time period. This wizard got fed up with the whole idiocy and truth and lies and people hallucinating and so forth, so he created a weapon that could kill spirits and went on a rampage. Most of the demons who were stupid enough to amuse themselves with possessing young girls either got killed, or found other amusements. So the short and long of it is, Harry, that your sword can kill ghosts...or perhaps destroy would be a better term. It tears apart their substance exactly like a regular sword tears apart flesh. There were only about four of them made and the others were all destroyed many years ago."  
  
Harry stared at him for a moment with his mouth gaping open, and then croaked, "Why do you keep calling it my sword? I just found it, it's not mine."  
  
"Ah, but it is!" Dumbledore said triumphantly. It's been waiting for its wielder for a very long time and no one else would have been able to find it. To think, it's been right here all this time! I went looking for it myself, in my youth. Quite disappointed when I couldn't find it. Now, I can see you're not entirely up to this discussion right now," he said in response to Harry's blank, uncomprehending look, "so you just go back to your dormitory and take a nap. You can come back when you feel like having more questions answered." Harry got up numbly and made for the door. "Oh, and Harry," Dumbledore smiled, "don't forget your sword." Harry turned around and picked it up without conscious thought and then walked out the door and into the hallway past a very shocked Professor McGonagall. She just couldn't imagine why the Headmaster would gift a boy whom he had informed the staff might be mentally unstable with a sword.  
  
~*~  
  
Harry was walking down the hall towards Gryffindor Tower in a daze when he was accosted by Nearly Headless Nick, who was looking unaccountably nervous.  
  
"I say, Harry, old chap, quite a magnificent find you've got there. I don't suppose you'd mind horribly doing me a little favor, would you?" Nick looked incredibly hopeful, and Harry couldn't refuse him.  
  
"Sure, what do you want me to do for you, Nick?" Harry said, while fervently hoping that he wasn't going to be invited to another deathday party.  
  
"Oh, it's just a little thing, really...You know how much I want to join the Headless Hunt, but they won't let me, the selfish things, because my head's still partially on." Harry started to see where this was going. "Would you mind just...whipping out that sword and cutting that last little bit through?"  
  
Harry started feeling a little queasy, but he'd already agreed, hadn't he? He nodded and led Nick, who was nearly jumping for joy, into a nearby classroom. He carefully drew the sword and looked at Nick nervously. "Um, maybe you'd better...you know," Harry made a tugging motion near his ear; Nick nodded eagerly and tugged on his own ear so that his head was mostly off and Harry had a clear shot at the little bit of skin that was left. Harry hefted the sword and swung it through Nick's neck. He closed his eyes at the last second...he couldn't help it.  
  
Nick shrieked as the sword went through his substance, but was left holding a severed head with a big grin in one hand. "That wasn't so bad! Thanks, Harry! I'm off to write a letter officially declaring myself beheaded." Nick swaggered off jauntily tossing his head from one hand to the other. Just before he left Harry's range of vision, he held up his head backwards and winked saucily. Harry smiled weakly and continued back to the common room at a slow walk. Then he remembered Ron's revelation and raced off at full speed, scrambling through the portrait hole and dashing up the stairs, practically breaking his neck in the process. He skidded to a halt in the doorway to his room and stared with horror.  
  
"Ginny!" he gasped. He wasn't quite sure what he'd been expecting, but this certainly wasn't it.  
  
~*~  
  
A/N Oh, I feel so naughty right now. I bet you all want to read about the Harry/Ginny reunion and so forth...but I promise that'll be next chapter! I don't see how I could avoid it. Right now I have this awful little voice in my head whispering "Post, post, post!" so I need to get this chapter done so that it'll shut up. I have a history essay to write, for crying out loud! And then there are all those spiffy reviews. I love reviews. Any of my friends will tell you...I'm completely obsessed. One of the first things I say in a conversation is "Hey, I got however many reviews!" It's sad. But anyway, thanks to those wonderful people who made those conversations possible.  
  
Julephenia: Thank you and you're welcome!  
  
Bucky: Don't worry, it won't be too much longer now! She's going to become more...how shall I say this...'involved' with the plot...hehehe...but for the meantime, I'm keeping her a little innocent. Note 'for the meantime!'  
  
EliCa: Thanks so much. Yeah, he is being a little weird, isn't he?  
  
Emily: Thanks a bunch!  
  
Jessica: Have no fears, it will continue. Thanks!  
  
Bobina: Wow, what an awesome review! *blush* Thanks! And so perceptive as well! That's kind of a little side-mystery with the ghosts. It'll get explained next chapter probably, when Harry goes back to Dumbledore for some more info.  
  
MoonBunni: Oodles of thanks!  
  
Wow, it gets tough thinking of different ways to say thank you! I dunno when I'll have the next chapter up because my next week is brutal with schoolwork...I'll try to get it up as soon as possible, I promise! 


	5. Revelations

Disclaimer: Ok, I'm getting sick of thinking of creative ways to do these...it's not mine, ok?  
  
A/N Once more, much of this was written in my classes when I was supposed to be doing other things. And with this stupid hardware failure at ff.net, I could have slowed down on my writing and it wouldn't have made any difference! I could have been studying! Oh, well, who wants to study anyway? On with the story!  
  
Chapter 5 ~ Revelations  
  
Ginny was sitting on Harry's bed, gazing out the window at the late afternoon sky which, she was certain, she would never see at any other angle for the rest of her existence. Trapped...the word echoed in her mind. She was trapped here with nothing to do, no one to talk to, and certainly nowhere to go. A black depression descended upon her and she began to contemplate whether it was possible for a ghost to commit suicide. She doubted it. That was just her luck.  
  
She would be forced to sit in this room and see Harry everyday and be completely ignored by him. It was like a regression back to the time where she was stutteringly infatuated and he studiously ignored her. Now he truly didn't know she existed. It was pure hell.  
  
That was a scary thought. What if she had not become a ghost, but rather had died and gone to hell. 'What did I ever do?' she thought frantically. 'I wasn't that bad. If I went to hell, then Fred and George are doomed.' But as she looked around, she became more and more convinced that she was in hell. There was no other explanation. And besides, the Hogwarts ghosts were visible and she wasn't. That in itself was proof that this wasn't real. She sighed miserably. She really didn't know whether reality or hell was worse. Just then, a heartbreakingly familiar voice sounded behind her, "Ginny!" Hell was definitely worse.  
  
She didn't turn around. What did it matter? He couldn't see her anyway. There were hesitant footsteps behind her, and she heard again, "Ginny?" There was a breath of wind by her shoulder and she got the impression that his hand had gone through her arm. She glanced over involuntarily in surprise and her eyes locked with Harry's.  
  
"You said you weren't dead," Harry said accusingly and a little desperately.  
  
"I said that I wasn't dead exactly; the last part got cut off. How can you hear me? You can't, of course. I'm just being delusional. Why am I even talking?"  
  
"Because I can hear you, perhaps?" If Harry was expecting a performance like the time in his dream, he was to be sadly disappointed. Ginny merely bowed her head with a little groan.  
  
"They found their mistake, and now they're going to fix it. Make me believe it's all real again. But I know the truth, now. They can't fool me again," Ginny muttered, sounding slightly demented even to herself. Harry gazed at her with extreme confusion. Ginny completely disregarded him. If this was hell, then this certainly wasn't Harry; it was just some demon trying to deceive her.  
  
"Ginny, are you all right? Wait, no stupid question. You're...um, well...a ghost, I suppose. And I guess that's not really a good thing. Is it? I guess I really wouldn't know, don't know much about ghosts and stuff, you know. Um, but are you...ummm....feeling all right? I mean, like emotionally. 'Cause you sound pretty upset. I mean, maybe not upset, no...upset isn't the right word at all. Um, what I was trying to say was, well...I don't really know what I was trying to say." He looked at her sheepishly.  
  
All through his rambling, Ginny's head had been slowly coming up and her expression brightening. By the time his voice trailed off in embarrassment, she was grinning excitedly.  
  
"No demon would act like that! This has to be real," She suddenly became rather abashed as well. "Um, if I sounded crazy before, it's because I thought that I was in hell and you were a demon sent to torment me. But I suppose if you were a demon, then you'd have professed your undying love for me now that we could never be together." She quickly clapped her hands over her mouth after she'd said that. What had she been thinking of? Or rather, not thinking! It was a practically a blatant confession; Harry would probably run screaming because a ghost was in love with him.  
  
Instead, he stood as still as if he had put down roots in the floor and gaped at her. Pretty soon, she almost wished that he'd run screaming. At least then he wouldn't be here staring at her and she'd be able to go and bang her nonexistent head up against a wall...Suddenly, of all preposterous things, Harry started laughing. If she could have melted into her previous invisibility, she would have. Then her embarrassment transmuted to anger and she clenched her hands into fists. How dare he laugh at her!  
  
Harry immediately stopped laughing as he saw Ginny's posture. He knew her well enough to see the danger signs and he backed away from her with his hands upraised in surrender. She didn't follow, mostly because there was nothing she could do to him. If she still had a real body, it would have been tempting to use the excuse of her anger to tackle him...She almost grinned, but managed to keep it under control.  
  
"Sorry, Gin. I didn't mean to laugh. It just never occurred to me that confessing my love would be a bad thing. But I guess we'll never know, will we?" He sounded very sad as he said that and he was looking down at his shuffling feet. "I'm going to go down to dinner. I missed lunch and I barely ate at breakfast, so I'll talk to you later. Ron probably won't be back tonight. Took a nasty fall down the stairs when he saw you. Went on babbling about how he was crazy and wanted a padded room." Harry cracked a smile and Ginny couldn't help giggling.  
  
"He always wanted one, for some reason. He has a strange fascination. We'll talk later. Oh, and Harry? Could you pull the curtains shut on your bed so that the other boys don't see me here? Then I can just hang out in there until you come back."  
  
"No problem," Harry said easily, as he walked over to his bed and drew the heavy, red curtains shut. Then he waved goodbye and left Ginny alone once more in the boys' dorm. Only now, she felt infinitely more hopeful than she had before. Harry, at least, would not forget her. She floated in the darkness within the bed curtains and contemplated his words to her.  
  
"I guess we'll never know..."  
  
~*~  
  
Harry's thoughts were roiling as he walked to dinner. His emotions were swinging wildly from depressed to elated and he abruptly pitied females for having to go through this regularly. He grimaced at his train of thought; he couldn't seem to keep his mind off of females. Or rather, on one female in particular.  
  
On the one hand, Ginny was definitely dead, but on the other, she was still with him. He could still talk to her and look at her, even if she looked rather different now. He missed the fiery color of her hair which had been absorbed into her present transparent bluish hue. Just about the only thing he couldn't do now touch her, and he hadn't been able to do that the way he wanted to when she was alive, either. He sighed and got a sudden urge to turn around and return to the dorm to talk to her. But then his stomach rumbled loudly, attracting a few curious looks, and he decided that he'd better continue on to dinner. Then afterwards, he'd better visit Ron and tell him that he wasn't insane - technically, anyway. Ron would be so disappointed that he wouldn't get his padded room.  
  
He walked into the Great Hall and noticed immediately that Hermione wasn't in her seat. He grinned in triumph; he would bet anything that Hermione was still with Ron. Those two would end up together eventually. It seemed unlikely, but he was the one that knew both of them best, and it would happen. He didn't need Professor Trelawney's phony divination class to tell him that. He became depressed again as he thought of them as a happy couple.  
  
If only he hadn't been so shy...but it had seemed that there was no rush. Ginny was always going to be around, wasn't she? Yes, she certainly was, but she was completely out of his reach now. Her words kept playing over and over in his head. Why hadn't he told her how he felt sooner? The reason was rather uncomplimentary, to tell the truth. He, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, had been embarrassed that he liked little Ginny Weasley, whom he had been avoiding for years, and he couldn't have born the gossip he knew was sure to follow if he showed any signs of interest in her. He knew he would regret it for the rest of his life. He ate automatically, all of his thoughts focused on Ginny.  
  
After he'd finished (and he never could remember afterwards what he'd eaten), he made his way to the hospital wing to visit Ron and Hermione. He told himself that he wasn't avoiding Ginny, but seeing her, even just thinking about her, was painful.  
  
When Harry entered the pristine infirmary, he saw Ron sitting up in his bed and looking affectionately down at Hermione, who had fallen asleep in the chair with her head resting on the bed and one of her hands tucked in Ron's. Ron looked up upon hearing Harry's footstep and smiled at him. He seemed much more peaceful now.  
  
"She said that she wasn't going to leave until I admitted I wasn't crazy," Ron said as Harry glance at the sleeping girl.  
  
"I guess you didn't admit it," Harry replied with a knowing grin. "She did get some dinner, right?"  
  
Ron bristled. "Of course she did! Madam Pomfrey tried to kick her out but she wouldn't go. Quite a tigress, our Hermione. You should've seen it. She almost got a detention, but Dumbledore came in and said she could stay. Even made Pomfrey get her some dinner when she got mine so she wouldn't have to leave even for a moment."  
  
"So now that we've covered Hermione's condition, how are you doing? D'you still think you're insane?" Harry asked.  
  
Ron immediately sobered. "I don't know how else to explain what I saw. I can't have seen her alive," Ron protested.  
  
Harry also became grave and replied, "What if I said that I saw her as well?"  
  
Ron replied immediately, "Then I'd say that you were crazy, too."  
  
"Thanks for your touching confidence in my sanity," Harry said sarcastically. Ron winced slightly. "But, honestly, I went back to the dorm— "  
  
"Yeah, I know you went back to the dorm! You went tearing out of here as if your pants were on fire," Ron smirked. Harry made a face at him and continued.  
  
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted – I went back to the dorm and found Ginny there, just like you said," Harry stopped meaningfully, because Ron was shaking his head stubbornly, and glared at him, then resumed, "only she wasn't alive. Ginny's a ghost, Ron. Another Hogwarts ghost," Harry looked down, guilt and sorrow crashing down on him again.  
  
"A ghost?! How did Ginny become a ghost? And why is she in the boys' dorm, of all places? And why haven't we seen her before? And—" Harry held up his hands to stop the flood of questions.  
  
"I don't know, Ron! Sheesh, I'm not omniscient. But don't worry, I'm on it. I'm going to talk to Ginny some more before I go to sleep," he abruptly became aware of his exhaustion, "and tomorrow, I'm going to see Dumbledore for some more information on my sword and possibly on Ginny. Then, if its not sufficient, and I'm sure it won't be, I'll go to the library and check out some books on ghosts and afterlife. Maybe I can get Hermione to help, if she can tear herself away from your side," Harry ended with a mischievous grin, and Ron rolled his eyes.  
  
"I'm going to have a blast next time you get a crush on someone," Ron retorted, "An absolute field day! Harry, what's wrong?" Ron looked concerned, and Harry wasn't surprised. He had felt the blood drain from his face, and he was sure that he was as white as a....ghost. 'The next time you get a crush on someone...' Harry thought.  
  
"Not bloody likely," he replied roughly and got up so suddenly that his chair made a loud grating noise on the floor and almost tipped over. He stormed out of the room with his back ramrod straight and his jaw clenched, leaving Ron staring after him in confusion.  
  
~*~  
  
The loud noise of Harry's chair had woken Hermione and she looked around groggily for the source of the disturbance. Her eyes fell on her and Ron's entwined hands and she hastily tried to pull her hand away , blushing, but he wouldn't let go. She met his eyes and he smiled slightly, although confusion still lurked in his eyes.  
  
"Ron? What happened?" she questioned softly.  
  
"I don't really know," he replied, seeming a little abstracted. "I don't understand."  
  
"Well, tell me, and then perhaps we can figure it out," she said with a touch of her usual asperity. He grinned and didn't argue.  
  
"Well, Harry just came in here and told me that I'm not crazy because I really did see Ginny," Hermione's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to protest but Ron cut her off, "I think Dumbledore's completely wrong about Harry. There's not many times when Dumbledore is wrong, but this is one of them. Ginny's a ghost, and she's been haunting the boys' dorm; that's why Harry's been hearing and seeing things....not because he's going crazy," Hermione's eyes were had grown as big as saucers as he told her this.  
  
"Oh, poor Ginny! And poor Harry. He must have had some doubts, as well, you know. But it's a logical explanation and I'm surprised that I didn't think of it myself. I suppose," she concluded, "that this will teach us not to place such faith in Dumbledore that our brains forget to work on their own."  
  
Ron nodded his agreement, though he was sure that such a situation would never have occurred to him in his wildest dreams.  
  
"That's not why he went storming out, though. He...was teasing me," his eyes flickered to their hands and up again, giving Hermione enough clue as to what the teasing had been about. She blushed again. "I said that I'd have fun teasing him when he found somebody, and he just turned dead white, said, 'Not bloody likely,' and stormed out. I don't know what got him so mad," Ron trailed off forlornly and looked over at the empty doorway. Hermione, though, was nodding in understanding.  
  
"Once again, I don't know why I didn't see it before. It seems so obvious from his behavior recently. It must be the reason, but...oh, I don't know. Harry, you stupid git!" Hermione burst out. Ron looked shocked.  
  
"Hermione, what? Tell me!" He sounded about to burst with impatience.  
  
"I think that Harry was...in love with Ginny." Ron gaped at her for a moment and then burst out laughing.  
  
"You girls and your romantic schemes! If Harry was in love with Ginny, then why weren't they together? He had plenty of opportunity and it was obvious how she felt about him."  
  
"If you love me, then why aren't we together?" she said contemptuously with another glance at their joined hands. "Things just aren't that simple Ron."  
  
"Well, they should be. Will you go out with me, Hermione? There, now Harry has no excuse," Ron had turned as red as his hair, but he was still smiling hopefully at Hermione's blank look. His smile faded slightly as Hermione didn't answer after several minutes.  
  
Hermione's clever mind was hard at work and very confused. She might be mentally suited to book learning, but this romance stuff didn't compute very well. It sounded at first that he was asking her out simply because he didn't want to believe that Harry was in love with Ginny. But then, when she remembered what she'd said before, it sounded as if he was admitting that he loved her. Did she want to accept? She didn't if he was just doing it to prove a point and didn't really care for her, and that was what her rational mind was telling her to believe. But he had kissed her – twice. Maybe, just maybe, he had wanted to ask her out and hadn't been able to get up the nerve, so he was using this opportunity. Did she want to accept? She asked herself again. The answer was most definitely 'yes,' and Hermione usually managed to get what she wanted.  
  
Ron was almost paralyzed with fright when Hermione didn't respond. His thoughts went in circles. He was certain that she was going to say no and that he'd just ruined their friendship permanently. It was just his good luck that she'd gotten over the fiasco down at the lake, but this was unforgivable. He wondered if Harry would be able to stay friends with both of them or if he would choose one or the other.  
  
Ron's train of gloomy thoughts was interrupted by Hermione, who suddenly grinned hugely and threw her arms around his neck. To say he was shocked would have been an extreme understatement. His eyes went wide and his hands started shaking.  
  
"Is – is that a 'yes?'" he croaked uncertainly. His only answer was a nod which he felt more than saw as Hermione's soft cheek rubbed up against his. Ron sighed with relief and happiness and put his own arms around Hermione. They stayed like that for quite a long time.  
  
~*~  
  
A/N I've decided to end the chapter there simply because it's gotten to my 'normal' length, and since the there was that infernal 'hardware failure' – grrrrrrr – I can't upload this for about a week...By that time I'll have the next chapter done as well. In fact, I'm going to start it right now. I'll probably post it about a day or two after this chapter, so there won't be much of a wait. I can definitely get it written before then because there is NO MORE SCHOOL! Yippee!  
  
And thanks to all my wonderful reviewers once again!  
  
Hedwig: Thanks! Yeah, it was a pretty horrible end, wasn't it?  
  
queenrandom: Please don't die! Especially since I had no control over how soon this was posted. Evil hardware...But I'm glad you like it!  
  
The White Plume: Thanks a lot! Hmmmm.. "What's happening with Ginny," you want to know...I can't tell you THAT! That's the whole plot! I think....*grin*  
  
Julephenia: Don't worry, I have no intention of leaving it there...as this chapter probably already told you...  
  
Tinabedina: I'm forever grateful for your good opinion!  
  
Bucky: Thanks! Blame the wait on that 'hardware failure.' Bah, humbug...  
  
Anon: Yeah, that's an awful thing to say, isn't it? But it's all over now and I can concentrate on the really important things in life...writing and sleep, in that order!  
  
You know me: hmmmmmm.......wonder who this is? Congrats for finally reviewing, and thanks, I really do appreciate it.  
  
So now there's only one person who didn't do their reviewing duty for this chapter.....you know who you are. Tsk, tsk.  
  
Now...on to the next chapter! 


	6. Starry Night

Disclaimer:  Wow, it's been a while…how do I do one of these things again?  Oh yeah…ummm, it wasn't mine the last time I posted, so I guess it's not mine now…darn.

A/N: Well, I am one extremely guilty person.  I've neglected this story frightfully.  I have one excuse and I think it's a pretty good one.  Writer's block.  It'll kill ya.  I could not think of any way to continue this stupid story until one night, in the shower, it just popped into my head!  I love being inspired.  Hopefully you nice peoples who were reading it before haven't put me on your hit lists or anything…*looks around nervously*…well, I hope you like it…and sorry about the very, very long wait!

Chapter 6 ~ Starry Night

            Harry strode into the boys' dorm, stifling a yawn.  With a wary glance at the closed curtains on his bed, he snagged his pajamas and went to change in the bathroom.  He was taking no chances, and besides, he was still feeling a little shaky and didn't quite want to face Ginny yet.  He needed steady emotions to be able to carry on a coherent conversation with her.  

            He felt slightly guilty about how he'd treated Ron.  After all, Ron had no idea what was going on.  Ginny's brother was the last person he'd been about to confide in, especially his reasons for not asking her out.  That would have been a sure recipe for animosity!  Harry felt he owed Ron an apology, and possibly an explanation, if he could bring himself to do it.  But not tonight.

            Harry changed distractedly and then wandered back into the dorm.  He stared at the red velvet curtains for a moment and then, with a sense of impending danger, opened them just enough to slip in, and then closed them hurriedly behind him, even though no one else was in the room yet.  

            A pale blue light radiated from Ginny, gently illuminating the cavernous inside of Harry's bed.  She looked ethereal and otherworldly, like a manifestation of pure magic.

            "Hi," Harry said quietly, taking a deep breath.  Now that he was here, face to face with her, he had no idea what it was he wanted to say.

            "Hello," she whispered, seeming similarly at a loss for words.  After a long pause, heavy with emotion, Ginny finally cleared her throat and spoke.  "Well, I guess you probably have a ton of questions for me.  I'll do my best to answer them."

            "Um, yeah.  I've got a few questions," Harry rummaged around in his unsettled mind to find the questions he'd been thinking about since he'd seen her, but which now seemed unimportant.  "Well, um...first of all...do you have any idea why I couldn't see you before but I can now?  And was it really you who screamed earlier?  And..."  Ginny held up a hand to stop him, laughing.  

            "Let's take it one at a time here!  Ok, let's see.  I have no idea why you couldn't see me before.  I was here, but invisible, and most people couldn't hear me.  And yes, that was me who screamed.  I guess you were the only one who could hear me...but I don't understand why."  She cocked her head inquiringly.  

            Harry shrugged helplessly.  "I don't know either.  It's one big mystery, but...I'm rather glad I did.  You might have saved your brother's life for the second time in as many days."  Harry hung his head, remembering with shame the burning anger that had consumed him.

            "I don't think you would've killed Ron.  Maybe given him a good scare and some bruises, but it was nothing more than he deserved, treating you like that."  Ginny tossed her head scornfully.  Harry smiled weakly.

            "I hope you're right, Ginny," he replied uncertainly.

            "I know I am."  That got a more definite smile.

            "Always the opinionated one, aren't you?"  He shook his head with fond exasperation.  

            "Of course," she replied lightly.  "If I wasn't forceful in my opinions, nobody would ever have listened to me!"

            "I would have," Harry said forcefully.  "I would always have listened to you."  There was another long pause, wherein both of them sat in helpless silence, staring at their hands.  Finally, Harry jerked himself out of his reverie and said, "Well, here's another question for you.  Why are you in the boys' dormitory?"

            Ginny giggled with renewed good humor.  "I have absolutely _no_ idea.  It's pretty ridiculous, but after I died, I just showed up here.  What an unlikely spot to haunt!  And it wasn't by choice either.  Once I got here, I couldn't leave.  The doorway wouldn't let me through."  Her brow furrowed cutely in perplexity.

            Harry frowned thoughtfully.  "I don't see why that would've happened.  All the other Hogwarts ghosts seem to be free to move around where they want.  Except..."  His thoughts roved back to the little girl with wings and green eyes.  Harry snaked his hand out between the curtains and grabbed his wand.  "_Lumos_" he muttered, and Ginny flinched when the light bloomed over and through her.  Harry peered at her worriedly in the fresh light from his wand, and blanched.  Ginny's eyes were green.

~*~

            Ginny looked at Harry oddly.  He looked frightened, confused, and all because he'd looked at her with more light.  She should look the same as she had in life, and he'd never been alarmed by her appearance _then_.  

            She watched worriedly as Harry put out the light in his wand, and stared at his hands again.  Then, slowly, he began to speak.  He told her about the spirit sword, and the winged ghost with the green eyes.  He told her about Dumbledore's explanation, and about Nearly-Headless Nick's request, which made her giggle.  Then in slow stumbling words, he told her about the little girl's apparent enslavement, and the peculiar color of ghost's eyes.  And finally, he told her of the color of her own.  

            Ginny shook her head as she tried to make sense of it.  "Harry, do you think there's someone controlling me?  Because he killed me with Avada Kedavra?  I…don't _feel_ controlled…" She trailed off uncertainly.

            "I don't know," Harry shrugged.  "I just know that when that ghost's eyes turned green, it meant that she was being controlled.  When they were clear, she was an entirely different person.  I…don't _think_ you're actually being controlled right now.  It's probably more of a sign that you _could_ be controlled than that you _are_.  But Ginny…do you know which one of the Death Eaters actually did the spell?  It could be very important."

            "I…yes.  I do." Ginny licked her lips nervously.  "But you're not going to like it.  You're not going to like it at all.  Promise me you're not going to go out and try to get revenge or something like that."  When he hesitated, Ginny frowned and hissed, "_Promise!_" with such intensity that he acquiesced.  

            "Lucius Malfoy," Ginny said in a flat voice.  Harry gaped, and then shut his mouth with a snap.  Really, what kind of surprise was it, when the elder Malfoy felt such disdain for the Weasleys?  "I saw his eyes through the mask, and they were just like Draco's, all flat and hard and gray.  It had to be him."

            "Are you sure?"  Harry asked doubtfully.  "Eyes are not a lot to go on."

            "_Believe_ me.  I _know_.  I don't know how, but I'm absolutely sure it was him.  If you're right, and he's the one who's able to control me, then maybe the link between us is telling me."

            "Ok, I believe you.  If I didn't believe things that couldn't be explained, I'd be having a lot of trouble right about now, sitting here and talking to you.  Good thing I'm," his sentence was interrupted by a yawn.  "…gullible," he finished, mumbling a little.

            "You're tired, you should go to sleep," Ginny said concernedly.  "I've kept you up too late as it is.  Funny how easily I forgot how much sleep someone needs, isn't it?" she commented with a smirk.

            Harry grinned, and stifled another yawn.  "Yeah, I should get some sleep.  I'll talk to you more in the morning, all right?"

            "All right.  And Harry…" Ginny looked at him shyly and smiled.  "Sweet dreams."

            "If I have them," he replied softly, "you'll know what they're about, and who I have to thank for them."  His smile softened into something she sensed was only for her, and he reached out a hand to caress the mist of her cheek before laying down in his bed and closing his eyes, the ghost of that smile still lingering on his lips.  An incredulous smile on her lips, she faded back through the curtains, leaving Harry to sleep in comforting darkness.

~*~

Ginny looked around the darkened room.  None of the other boys were here yet.  She figured they were probably down in the common room, socializing and doing schoolwork, though probably more of the former than the latter.  She looked longingly at the door.  Now that Harry was back in his bed, she had nowhere to hide when the other boys came back to the dormitory.  It wasn't that she wanted to hide forever, but it was fairly uncomfortable to tell some boys that you were stuck in their room, and had been for a while when they weren't aware of it.  It would be so nice if she could just leave the room and go wherever she wanted…

Out of sheer stubbornness and frustration, Ginny pushed her way towards the doorway again.  It felt as though she was pressing against a barrier made of thick foam.  She pushed through it with all her obstinate will until with a _pop!_ she broke through and flew into the hallway.  She giggled triumphantly and floated down the stairs to the common room.

At the doorway, she hesitated.  How could she just go in there as if nothing had changed?  Could she just float in, sit down on the air, and expect them to be fine with it?  She sighed.  They were all going to find out sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner.  She took a deep breath, although intellectually she knew she didn't need to, and stepped into the common room.  

The talk didn't falter at all, and no one looked up.  Ginny chuckled at her fears of a melodramatic entrance.  Obviously no one even realized she was there.  But the chuckle must have attracted some attention, for at that moment, Neville looked up, spotted her, screamed, and promptly fainted.  She couldn't help it; she started to laugh.

"_Boys_.  They're such babies," she said between giggles.  "Ron did the same thing."  The shocked inhabitants of the common room goggled at her in disbelief, no one making a sound except for her slightly hysterical giggles. 

"_Ginny_?" Parvati said incredulously.  "Ginny, is that you?"

"Um," Ginny hiccupped.  "Yeah.  S'me."  She felt oddly drowsy and muddleheaded.  "M'here."  And then all she saw was darkness.

~*~

            Harry was awakened by a shrill scream from below.  With a bound, he was out of bed and down the stairs, after unconsciously grabbing his sword from beside his bed where he'd left it earlier.  He burst into the common room to see Ginny advancing on a group of cowering Gryffindors, glowing a sickly green.  With a surge of intuition, he drew the sword, and ran past her to interpose himself between her and her quarry.  

            "You don't want to lose your tool, do you?" Harry taunted the unseen puppeteer as Ginny was pulled up short.  "I have the ability to banish her, and you know it.  Don't take one more step forward.  Let her go."

            The puppeteer lifted Ginny's foot to step forward, as if mocking Harry's threats.  He lifted the sword and placed the tip at her throat.  If she took a step, she would be skewered on the blade.

            _Please, please, don't let it come to that.  Don't make me kill her more completely than I already have.  Please._

            Ginny froze in place, and then took a step…backwards.  Harry sighed with relief, but didn't lower his sword.  Slowly, the green glow receded and the emerald drained from her eyes.  The slack, dead look left her features, to be slowly replaced by dawning horror.  With a strangled cry, she fled up the stairs and away from the living.

~*~

            Harry followed Ginny up the stairs into the boys' dorm and found her curled into a ball in his bed, sobbing transparent tears, which sparkled like crystal in the moonlight.  He took a step toward her, wishing desperately that he could hold her.  She looked up at his footfall, flinched, and soared up into the air, through the glass of the window, and into the moonlit night air outside.  Harry was left an empty bed and an empty heart.  

            "It wasn't your fault," he whispered to the emptiness, and with a sigh, sheathed the sword and set it down.  He heaved himself onto his bed and sat staring out the window at the empty sky, wondering where she had gone, and if she would come back to him.  It was only after several minutes that he realized that the sheets beneath his hands were wet with the salt water of Ginny's crystal tears.

~*~

            She flew, and her heart exulted in the freedom of it.  She amused herself by playing tag with the stars and temporarily forgetting her woes.  She gloried in the wind whipping through her and the moonlight illuminating her with a pale shadow of its own luminous light.  Here, everything was light and air and wind whipped dreams.  Here, everything was simple.  She soared in loops and swirls, just another whisper of air in the great wind, miniscule in comparison, but sharing in its glory.  It seemed she'd been here an eternity, yet the time was still too short.  She celebrated her union with the eternal wind, divorcing herself from humanity.  

            As she swayed and twirled, another wisp of mist came to her attention.  It didn't fly with the wind, but merely floated, watching her.  At first, she felt angry that anything would intrude on her solitude, but then she felt a strange urge to greet the other spirit, to invite it to join in her dance.  She paused, a dancer caught in a still frame, graceful, poised for flight.  

            Transparent eyes watched her from under messy bangs.  He had no glasses; he didn't need them now.  His sight was clearer than glass and sharper than a sword blade.  He extended a misty hand, in which she placed her own.  They danced with the stars as the moon wafted across the night sky, two nameless spirits, until the first hint of dawn touched the horizon.  Hand in hand, they sank from the sky to rest on the dew-spangled grass.

            "I have to go now, " he whispered.  She clutched his hand fiercely, but he gently freed it, smiling at her.  "Until later, my dream-lady," he murmured, taking her face in both hands and brushing his lips against hers.  "Until later…." And he faded away, leaving her alone in the early morning sunlight with only the memory of a dream.

~*~

            Harry woke up feeling more rested than he had in quite a while.  When Ginny had wished him sweet dreams, he'd had no idea it would work so well.  He stretched luxuriously and opened his eyes, grinning happily to see Ginny floating at the foot of his bed.  She smiled back uncertainly, but worry still lurked in her eyes.  Harry's smile faded.  

            "What's the matter?" he asked.

            "Was that real?" she asked breathlessly, as if she was forcing the words out.

            "Yeah, I think it was."  Harry couldn't remember ever feeling more content or at peace with the world.  Now if only Ginny was alive….

            The thought doused his happiness like a bucket of water on flames.  It was replaced by an icy determination that Voldemort _would not_ take another person he loved from him.  If Voldemort could be resurrected, so too could Ginny.  Harry had not let Voldemort win in the past and had no intention of beginning now.  With new determination, Harry swung out of bed and pulled on his clothes as fast as he could while Ginny turned away, blushing.  

As he walked swiftly from the room, Ginny called after him, "Where are you going?"

"To the library!" he said over his shoulder.  He caught a glimpse of her confused face before he was out the portrait hole and striding through the hallways.

~*~

            Ginny stood in the dorm with a bevy of sleeping boys, not quite knowing what to do with herself.  Harry had flown off on some mission and every other Gryffindor was likely to be scared witless of her.  Every Gryffindor…except for her brothers and Hermione.  And Harry had said that Ron had fallen down the stairs after seeing her.  A visit to him in the hospital wing was the least she could do…and the most, as well, in her present incorporeal state.  Never the less, she floated out the door, which no longer gave her any trouble, and into the common room, which was blissfully empty at this early morning hour.  The portrait gave her a moment's pause until she realized that she didn't _have_ to open it in order to get through.  Once she began to float through walls, traversing Hogwarts became a great deal easier.

            The hospital wing was unchanged in its pristine whiteness, and Madam Pomfrey still bustled about with the same brisk efficiency.  Fortunately, the only thing in her hands when she caught sight of Ginny was a roll of self-cleaning bandages, which immediately cleaned itself, after dropping ignominiously to the floor.  She quickly stooped to pick them up, giving Ginny a look that mixed reproof with astonishment.  One was obviously meant for the student, and the other for the ghost.  Ginny smiled sadly and told her, "I'm here to see my brother."

            "Of course, dear," Madam Pomfrey responded, the student apparently having won out over the ghost.  "He's right over there."  She indicated the direction with a flip of the bandage end she was rapidly rolling up.  Ginny nodded her thanks, and floated away, painfully aware of the nurse's inquiring eyes on her back.  

            Ron was engaged in what seemed to be a rather lively debate with Hermione when Ginny poked her head around the screen that separated him from the rest of the infirmary.  Most of it seemed to consist of "Will to!" and "Will _not_!"  Ginny snickered.

            "My, you two seem to be getting along just smashingly.  How long before we get to the 'I'm going to tell _Mom_!'s?  Because it sure sounds like that's where you're headed."  Ginny enjoyed immensely the long shocked silence and the gaping mouths that her appearance elicited.  She was certainly noticed now, even if she'd had to die to make it happen.  

            "G-g-ginny!  You were…you are…you're…!"

            "Yes, Ron," Ginny said with false boredom, "I'm dead, I'm a ghost, and I'm here to haunt you.  Any other questions?"

            Hermione giggled, and Ron shot her a nasty look.  

            "Well, _honestly_, Ron, you _knew_ she was a ghost.  You saw her, for goodness sakes.  Don't act so shocked."  Ron looked like a thundercloud, but Hermione smiled at him, and he softened visibly.

            "Sheesh, 'Mione, how'm I supposed to stay angry with you now?" he shook his head and smiled back at her.  Hermione's smile broadened, and she reached out to clasp Ron's hand.

            Ginny squealed in delight.  "Does this mean you two have _finally_ gotten together?"  Hermione nodded shyly, and Ginny jumped up and down and clapped her hands with enthusiasm, partly because she was happy for them, but mostly because she knew it annoyed Ron to no end when she acted like a brainless little ditz.  Sure enough, Ron scowled at her, and she grinned back so infectiously that he broke into a smile again.

            "It's good to see you again, little sister," he said warmly and then sighed.  "I'd like to give you a welcome back hug, but I guess it wouldn't work too well, huh?"

            "No, not really," Ginny replied, though her thoughts drifted to the night before, when Harry's spirit had joined her in the sky.  He'd had no idea how close she'd been to dissolving into the wind and simply blowing away forever….she shook herself away from the memories.  Ron and Hermione both looked at her with concerned faces.

            Ron said quietly, "I'd tell you to go to Dumbledore with whatever's bothering you, but we've kind of lost faith in him recently."  Ginny looked at him peculiarly and he continued, "You see, when Harry started hearing you and things, Dumbledore informed us and all the staff that he was…unstable.  Going crazy, to put it bluntly."

            "He _what_?"  Harry stood in the doorway with a painfully betrayed expression on his face.  "He told them what?"

            "Well, he was obviously wrong.  Remember what I told you second year about hearing voices no one else could?  Once more, you just have the right set of ears.  Of course, I can't quite figure out why _you_ heard her…"

            Harry smiled then and stepped forward to stand beside Ginny.  "I've got a few ideas about that," he said, and reached out to clasp Ginny's hand in his own, just as firmly as if it was still flesh and blood.

~*~

A/N Well, there it is.  I'm ever so proud of myself, and ever so ashamed of myself at the same time.  Oh well…it's here now!  I'd just like to send out some thanks to the people who reviewed my last chapter…however many months ago that was…thanks you guys…*looks sheepish*

Thanks to Temporary Insanity, Veldan, The White Plume, and Ethan!  And…well…sorry!


	7. Enter the Dragon

A/N: Ah, the joys of writing in school.  Oh, the joys of writing when I should be doing homework!  Oh, the joys of being able to write at all and not having writer's block!

Chapter 7 ~ Enter the Dragon

Ron and Hermione gaped at them as if both of them had suddenly sprouted leaves for hair and put down roots in the infirmary floor.  And Ginny seemed just as astonished.  Harry had to suppress a grin.  He felt supremely confident, motivated, like nothing could stop him from achieving his goals.  And Ginny's hand in his made him feel as if he could fly in reality as his dream-self had in the night.

Hermione was sputtering incoherently.  It was the first time Harry had ever seen her completely discomfited and without an answer.  Ron's mouth had simply fallen open as if his jaw had come unhinged.  And Ginny gripped his hand tightly, caressing it as if to assure herself that it was real and would not dissolve into mist, and smiling incredulously up at him.  He felt a smile tugging at his lips in response, and let it.  She deserved so much more than a smile.

"All right, it's time for a serious planning session," Harry said assertively.  "I'll tell you everything I've figured out so far, and you can help me come up with a plan."  Hermione had stopped babbling and now was gazing speculatively at Harry and Ginny's clasped hands.  Ron glanced at her, followed her gaze, and narrowed his eyes. 

Ron looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow and asked in a voice thick with restrained laughter, "I think the first question that needs answering is 'What are your intentions toward my sister?'"  All four of them burst out laughing, and some of the tension in the room evaporated.

"I've been thinking about that quite a bit myself," Harry replied, once he'd composed himself, "and I think I've come up with a fairly good course of action."  Once again, all eyes were riveted on him and there was no trace of levity now.

"Resurrection."

It was as if a bomb had exploded within the room and all of them were recovering from the explosion.  Hermione's eyes were very wide, and Ron looked confused, but hopeful.  

"Harry," said Hermione slowly, "You're not contemplating any..._dark magic, are you?  I don't know of any spells of resurrection that are anything but evil, and they don't produce the kind of results that any of us would want for Ginny."  She said it hesitantly, as if she didn't want to crush anyone's hopes, but felt compelled to point out the realities of the situation.  _

But Harry simply nodded.  "I know.  The first couple spells I found were nasty things.  I even found a copy of the spell Voldemort used for his rebirth, and that, of course, was the nastiest of all.  But I found something else cross-referenced from that, and I _think we should be able to use it."_

Hermione shook her head in annoyance.  "I don't know what you're talking about, so hurry up and enlighten me before I explode of frustration!"

Ron grinned.  "You'd better hurry up, Harry!  I don't particularly want an exploding girlfriend."  Hermione mock-glared at him, and he pretended to take cover behind the bed covers.  

Harry's face split into a huge grin, but all he said was, "_Finally!"  Both Ron and Hermione grinned back at him, and Hermione looked rather relieved.  _

"All right, all right, back to business," Ron said, apparently rather uncomfortable with the attention.  Harry nodded, not at all averse to returning to his explanation.  

"So what was the other spell?" Hermione asked insistently.

"It was the alter-ego, so to speak, of the spell Voldemort used.  It was almost the exact opposite.  It used love instead of hate to enact the resurrection, but there's a catch.  It has to be a very special type of love which ties the ghost to the living person, and the living to the ghost."

"Harry," Hermione said, "tell me you're not talking about what I think you're talking about..." She leaned forward and looked closely at him.  "Oh my god..."

This surprised even Harry, and he looked at her peculiarly.  "What?  Do I have dirt on my nose or something?"

Hermione looked at him hesitantly.  "Your hair...it's turning gray.  And so are your eyes.  Gray...and transparent."  

"_What?!" he yelped in surprise.  Ron's eyebrows jumped upwards, and he leaned forward to get a better look._

"Bloody hell..." Ron whispered.  Harry looked from one to the other, still confused, and then looked at Ginny.  That was when he joined in their gaping.  

Her hair had faint reddish streaks in it.  Her eyes were a very washed out brown, as if she were a pencil sketch which had been tinted with watercolors.  And the hand which clasped his own had color; the color of a corpse, perhaps, but it was still worlds better than rest of her skin.  "Bloody hell..." he echoed Ron.

"I never would have guessed…" Hermione whispered.  "Oh my god.  We can do it.  We can bring her back.  Ginny, you can live again!"  Her eyes shone and Hermione looked as if she would have jumped up to hug Ginny if she could have.

"_How_?" Ginny said urgently.  "Please tell me how!"  She looked between Harry and Hermione, clasping Harry's hand in both of her own.

"Harry?" Hermione said, "You know the spell.  Tell us."

"Well, it starts off with a potion which I'm hoping you'll be willing to make, Hermione, since you're the best of us."

"Of course!" Hermione cut in, and Harry shot her a smile before resuming his recitation.  

"The next part is the ceremony.  We need a piece of bone from Mrs. Weasley.  I don't quite know how we'll get it out of her, but I'm sure she'll be willing to donate it for her daughter's sake.  The next part could be tougher, since we need flesh from Ginny's master.  We're actually kind of lucky, since she actually has a master in the first place."

"She has a master?" Ron said doubtfully.  Ginny flushed, a delicate wash of transparent pink creeping up her pallid cheeks, and looked at the ground, avoiding her brother's eyes.  

"Yeah.  We've made a new discovery about Avada Kedavra.  The caster can control the spirit of their victim.  So the person who cast the spell is Ginny's master.

Ron groaned.  "How many black-robed freaks are there out there who could've cast that spell?  We can't even figure out who the Death Eaters are, so how are we going to find a particular one of them?  It's never gonna happen."

Ginny looked up.  "I know who it is.  We don't have to search.  I know who killed me."

Ron's face grew red.  "Tell me, and I'll go out and kill that murdering bastard, I swear I will!"  Hermione held Ron down when he looked as if he was about to jump out of bed and go hunting that very moment.

Ginny shook her head violently.  "No, Ron.  I made Harry promise not to go after him for revenge before I told him, and I want the same promise from you."

"Like hell!" Ron exclaimed.  "I'm gonna kill him for what he did to you!"

"Then I won't tell you.  Harry can take care of that part of it."

"Ginny Weasley!  You tell me right now!" Ron said, trying to sound severe.

"Look at it this way, big brother.  Do you want revenge for my death, or do you want your little sister back alive?"

"Awwww….sisters." Ron said in a tone of deepest disgust.  "Fine, I won't skin that _thing_ alive, like he so richly deserves.  Now tell me."

Ginny shuddered a little.  She whispered, "Lucius Malfoy."  Hermione had to restrain Ron again, while Ginny shouted, "You promised!"

Finally Ron subsided, still muttering imprecations under his breath.  "When we get a hold of him, I want to be the one who carves off a piece of his flesh!" Ron said vehemently.  

"Sorry, Ron," Harry said.  "I called it first."

Ron grimaced at him.  "I don't see how you should get him first.  I'm her brother."

"Oh, stop it, both of you!  You're being absolutely ridiculous.  Obviously, the one who performs the spell will be the one who gets the privilege of cutting up Malfoy."  Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust.  "And furthermore, before one of you can carve him up, we need to _get_ him in the first place.  And how are we going to capture Lucius Malfoy?"

Harry's shoulders slumped a little.  Put like that, he didn't see what chance they had.  How could three teenagers and a ghost go up against Lord Voldemort's most powerful supporter and win?  His confidence took a severe hit, but his determination continued undiminished.  He would find a way because he had to.

"We'll deal with that later.  Let's get an idea of the whole thing before we work on the details.  Go on, Harry." Ginny urged, trying to ignore the skeptical look on Hermione's face and the hopeless look on Ron's.  

"The third element of the ceremony is blood.  It has to come from someone who loves Ginny.  No, Ron," Harry said with a smile as Ron immediately motioned to himself, "It has to be romantically.  And it also has to be someone tied to Ginny with the _Contineo Amor_."

"_Contineo Amor_? What's that?" Ron asked, his brows furrowing.  

"It's true love," Hermione answered for him, "taken out of fairy tales and put in the real world.  It binds the spirits of two people together…and _that_," Hermione proclaimed triumphantly, "must be why Ginny became a ghost in the first place!  She was tied to life by her bond with Harry."  Hermione nodded decisively and looked thoroughly pleased with herself.

"Do you really think that's true?" Ginny said, sounding doubtful.  "I mean, it's not as if there was anything between us."

"I believe it," Harry said, gazing at her intensely.  "And there _is_ something between us."  He took her incorporeal hand in both of his warm living ones and brought it to his lips, placing a gently kiss on its back.  Ginny flushed transparently, but couldn't seem to taker her eyes off of Harry.  His were equally glued to her.  They stood there for a long moment, simply looking at each other, before Ron spoiled the moment by bursting out laughing.

"Aw, look at the lovebirds!  Aren't they so _cute_?!" Ron squealed in a falsetto voice.  Harry looked away from Ginny to glare at him.  Hermione elbowed him in the side and he yelped in mock-pain.

"Ow!  This is all the thanks I get for being nice?" he said innocently.  "Some friends you are!"

"Yeah, some friend _you_ are!" Harry said with heavy irony.  "I've been nice enough not to comment on all the time you and Hermione have spent together, all alone in this private little spot here…"  His voice trailed off suggestively.  Ron flushed crimson.  "Anything you can tease me for, I can tease you right back!" Harry laughed.

Ron laughed weakly.  "Ok, you win.  I can't even tease you and Ginny since…hang on!  How're you two holding hands?"

"Oh, that," Harry looked a little embarrassed.  "It was another spell I found that brings the caster closer to the spirit world so that they can affect things in it.  Kind of a present." He said, glancing at Ginny.  She smiled warmly.

"Thank you."

After some more idle chatter, they were about to get back to business when Madam Pomfrey bustled into their conference and shooed half of their number out.  She grudgingly allowed Hermione to stay, though she glared and muttered things like, "Don't know _how_ he's going to heal," and "What _is_ this world coming to?"  Harry and Ginny were herded into the hallway where they scampered away giggling.  But after they'd left, they had nowhere to go.  They wandered the halls aimlessly, chattering about nothing, until Harry spotted a broom closet.

"Ginny…" Harry said with a wicked gleam in his eye, gesturing toward the closet.  "It's a time-honored tradition, you know."

Ginny chuckled.  "Well, then who are we to break tradition?"  She floated toward it, pulling him grinning behind her.

Their kisses were tentative and shy at first, but became more and more passionate as years worth of suppressed emotions came to the fore.  They were wrapped up in the wonder of each other, completely oblivious to the outside world, until….

The knob on the door turned and Ginny zipped away through the back wall, leaving Harry alone in the closet as the door swung open.  Professor McGonagall's stern face was confronted him from the bright hallway, and he inwardly cringed.

"Mr. Potter!  I must say this is the first time I've found a student _alone_ in here.  Would you be so kind as to give me an explanation?"  She peered behind him through her spectacles as though she expected to find someone else lurking behind him.  Harry thanked Ginny's foresight in getting out quickly, but couldn't seem to think of an excuse to get himself out.  His mind raced as he stared at his feet, and finally he settled on something that at least had a smidgeon of a chance of getting him out unscathed.

"Professor, I…know that this isn't a very normal place for anyone to be, but…I needed to get away from people.  They're all so upset about…" he put a little catch in his voice, "Ginny that…I just can't stand to be around them."

McGonagall's eyes softened infinitesimally, and Harry knew he'd chosen a good angle of attack.  "Well, Mr. Potter, I suggest that you find somewhere else to haunt in the future.  There are plenty of places that are not quite so…disturbing to people like Neville Longbottom who continuously believe that there is a boggart in every closet.  I'd advise you to return to your common room for the time being."  Harry grimaced at the mention of the fearful, clumsy Neville who had cut short his precious time with Ginny.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall." Harry said obediently and edged out of the closet around her.  As he walked away, he noticed her searching in the closet, undoubtedly for anything dangerous that the "mentally unstable" boy could have gotten his hands on.  He almost laughed, but restrained himself since it would spoil his ruse.  He ducked around a corner and walked right through Ginny.

She grimaced.  "I guess that means that the spell wore off."

"Yeah," Harry replied regretfully.  He had really wanted to continue their interlude from the closet, but there had been warnings in the spell book about using the spell too often.  Apparently, a person could cross over entirely to the spirit world and not be able to come back.  Though it had occurred to Harry that, if they were unsuccessful in resurrecting Ginny, he could join her instead.

"Oh well.  If your plan works, we won't have to worry about any stupid spell," Ginny said happily.  She floated up and planted an insubstantial kiss on his lips before mournfully backing away.  "Is there anything we can do to speed up that plan?  I'd really like to be alive again…" she trailed off wistfully.

"And I would like that, too.  You have no idea how much…" Harry averted his eyes from her and, for the first time, contemplated failure.  What if it didn't work?  How could he bear to disappoint Ginny after giving her such hope?  But….it was better to try and fail than to never try at all.  "Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything we can do at the moment…"

At that moment, someone barreled around the corner and skidded to a halt a few feet in front of them.  Draco Malfoy shook silver blonde hair out of his eyes and stared at Ginny with shock.  

"Where did you spring from, Weasley?  I thought you were gone for good." Draco sneered.  

"Nah, you can't get rid of me so easily, Malfoy.  We Weasely's are into revenge, didn't you know?  I decided to come back and haunt you for the rest of your life," Ginny shot back.

Draco turned dead white.  "I had _nothing_ to do with it, I swear!  I'm not in with that crowd, and I had _no_ idea what they were planning.  Otherwise, I swear I would've warned you."  Some of his bravado cracked, and Ginny could see just how upset he was by seeing her.

"Huh, if I didn't know better, I'd say the heartless Draco Malfoy was developing a conscience.  What a strange thing," Harry mocked.

"Listen Potter, just because I'm a heartless bastard doesn't mean I'm a murderer.  Go shove a snot-flavored jellybean up your nose if you don't like it, but I _am_ sorry about what happened," Draco replied heatedly.  

McGonagall strode around the corner then, her heels clicking firmly against the stone floor.  Her eyes raked over them, stopping on Ginny and widening.  Her mouth opened and closed several times, but she finally seemed to decide to take comfort in normalcy and simply continue with what she had come here to do.

"Have seen anyone come this way?  Someone has just set off a set of Filibuster fireworks in Filch's office, and the culprit must be caught.  I trust you will help me?"  She looked severely around at them through her glasses while they all slouched and avoided her eyes.  

"No one's come this way, Professor McGonagall.  We've all been right here, talking."  Ginny said unexpectedly.

The professor nodded and continued on her way, apparently not noticing the incongruity of two Gryffindors and a Slytherin "talking" in her distress over Ginny.

Draco looked at Ginny with a raised eyebrow after McGonagall was safely out of range.  "Since when have you covered my back, muggle-lover?  Or were you just too dim to realize that it was me you were covering for?"

"I knew quite well who I was covering for, Malfoy!" Ginny hissed.  "Apparently you don't recognize a favor when you see it.  But I'm not surprised, with the family _you_ have."

"And what would _you_ know about my family?  You don't know anything about the lifestyles of the rich and famous," Draco smirked.

"What I _know_," Ginny said wish deadly quiet, "is that your father is a murderer."

Draco's pale skin grew white again.  "No…." his voice trailed off in horror.  Then he shook himself out of it, and continued, "You don't know what you're talking about.  You're just making something up to irritate me.  You're just a filthy, lying, little muggle-loving Weasley."  He put his nose in the air and swaggered away.  Harry and Ginny exchanged ironic glances.

"That's what's wrong with snakes," Harry said ironically, "If you pick one up to help it, it'll bite you in the hand, and you'd better hope it doesn't have poisonous venom."

A/N: I love Draco.  I had so much fun writing this chapter, and I'd like everyone to take it as proof that I will continue posting at regular intervals.  Kai, have a blast, no more teasers!

I'd like to thank all my wonderful reviewers now:

Mike: Well, no more waiting!  And am I gonna have to beat you over the head to get you to review this one, too?

Amaya: Thank you very much!

Frax: Thanks!  Here it is….ta da!

Lioness: Believe me, if I wish I could get my hands on the next books!  It's driving me crazy!  Thanks for reviewing.

Temporary Insanity: Thanks for coming back!  I'm glad you didn't abandon my story.  And no, he's still very much alive.  Hopefully your question was explained in this chapter.

Domino84: Thanks for reading, and I'm glad you decided to give it a try.  I'm working on it.

RedPaws: And heeeeerrrreeeee it is, as requested!  Thanks a lot!

Veldan: Hey, you shouldn't make my other readers jealous by telling them that you get advance info!  S'not nice, y'know.  Hehehehe.


	8. The Dragon Spreads His Wings

Disclaimer: If it was all mine, d'you really think I'd be posting it _here_?

A/N: Well, here it is.  It took a while to get out, since I've had an insane amount of essays to write.  Reminds me I still haven't finished one, but…I figured this was more important.  And I decided to have a whole Draco-related chapter.  What fun!

Chapter 8  ~ The Dragon Spreads His Wings

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny huddled together in the common room that night, looking quite like the conspirators they were.  Their whispers were muffled and people kept casually waking near them in hopes of overhearing something.  Others watched them avidly, and the majority of the eyes were glued to Ginny.  Finally, they all seemed to get fed up with it and separated to go to their dorms and presumable their beds.  

            One by one, the other students went to bed and the common room quieted.  Then three shadows and one glowing form drifted back.  The fire, which had died down to glowing embers in the absence of anyone who could appreciate it, flared up again.

            "Well, now that we can _finally_ talk…" Hermione said in a tone of exasperation.  

            "Yeah, it was getting really annoying, wasn't it?" Ron agreed.  "You'd think people would just mind their own business once in a while."

            "The price of fame, guys, the price of fame," Harry said pompously, imitating the overbearing tones of former Professor Lockhart.  They all laughed.  "Ok, down to business.  One, we need bone from Mrs. Weasley.  Two, we need flesh from Lucius Malfoy.  Three, a little blood from me.  One and three should be easy to do, so all we need is to work on two.  Any suggestions?"  Harry tried not to look hopeful, but he truly wished that someone else would be able to come up with something.  He was drawing a complete blank.  Not only could they not get to the elder Malfoy, since he was quite obviously not at Hogwarts, but even if they could, there was no way a group of teenage wizards and a ghost could subdue a fully-grown and trained dark wizard.  The whole thing seemed hopeless….

            "It's hopeless," Ron said, looking a little desperate.  "There's no way we can do this.  It's impossible."  

            Hermione glared at him.  "Ronald Weasley!  Are you insane?  Of _course_ we can do it.  We _have_ to do it."  She widened the glare to include everyone.  "We are going to make this happen no matter what.  We haven't been beaten yet, and we're not going to be!"

            Harry grinned wanly.  "You should be the captain of the quidditch team, Hermione.  You could give really wicked pep talks."

            Hermione grinned back with more feeling than Harry.  "Just call me in if you want.  We can discuss my fees later.  Anyway, back to the business at hand.  Malfoy."

            Ginny gasped.  "That's _it_!" she cried.  Everyone looked at her in confusion.  "_We_ can't do it.  That's obvious," she cut off Hermione's immediate protest with a shake of her head.  "What we need is inside help, so to speak.  Someone who can get closer to the Malfoy family than us."  

            "But who?" Ron protested.  "Everyone in Slytherin hates us, and no one outside it would get near Mr. Pureblood Stuck-up Malfoy."

            "But that's just it.  What if _we_ get a 'pureblood stuck-up Malfoy' to help us?  What if we talked Draco into helping us?"

            Ron let out a great guffaw.  "The day Malfoy helps _us_, and against his own family, no less, will be the day the dementors are imprisoned in Azkaban.  We haven't got a chance in hell of persuading him."

            Hermione was nodding in agreement, but Harry looked thoughtful.  

            "Y'know, it might just work." Harry said contemplatively.  Ron and Hermione gaped at him.

            "Harry, are you _completely_ insane?" Ron said, a bit too loudly for comfort.  Hermione tried to shush him so that he didn't wake up the sleepers upstairs, but he ignored her and continued, "Join forces with _Malfoy_?  _Against_ a Malfoy?  You've lost your marbles this time, for sure!"

            "I just don't see how it would work," Hermione chimed in, looking apologetically between Harry and Ginny.  "I mean, it's _Malfoy_ and…well, _Malfoy_."

            Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance.  Then Ginny looked back at Ron and Hermione.  

            "It's not as crazy as you might think."  She proceeded to tell them about the run-in with Malfoy and how he had been so shocked and appalled when Ginny had implied his father's involvement in her death. 

            "So maybe," she concluded, "he'd feel guilty enough to help us.  As he said, he may be a bastard, but it doesn't make him a murderer.  And you have to admit, there's no one better for getting close to Mr. Malfoy."

            "Well," Ron conceded, "I guess you're right about that.  But I still don't like it.  I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could throw a bludger."

            "But Ron," said Hermione reasonably, "you _can't_ throw a bludger."

            "_Exactly_," Ron said.

~*~

            The next day, Ginny made it her business to follow Malfoy wherever he went.  She actually found it rather amusing; every time he saw her, he would jump violently and then resolutely look elsewhere, until, after several minutes, his eyes would creep back to her, and he would jump yet again.  She had to work very hard to control her giggles.  Much as it would have been satisfying to annoy him, that wasn't what she was trying to accomplish.  

            Double Potions, which Slytherin had with Gryffindor, was especially trying.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione all had to suppress their own laughter, and every time Ginny looked at them, she wanted to start laughing too.  The looks Malfoy kept giving her were priceless.  Nevertheless, she kept her face in an expression of grief and accusation.  Malfoy got so nervous by the end of Potions that he actually tipped over his cauldron, spilling a Confusing Concoction over the students near him, and was reprimanded by Snape, though no points were taken from Slytherin.  Ginny didn't have to fake her look of disapproval at that.

            After classes were over for the day, Ginny decided that she'd done enough.  Hopefully, Malfoy would feel guilty enough to come looking for her.  And if he didn't, well…there was always tomorrow.  Or better yet, tonight.  Ginny almost giggled in anticipation.  

            The four of them lounged around in the Gryffindor common room that night, waiting to see if Malfoy would show up.  True, he didn't have the password, but they were all confident that if he _really_ wanted to get in, he could.  Probably, Hermione had commented sardonically, by bullying one of the younger students.

            The hours ticked by and soon all of them were yawning.  Malfoy didn't appear.

            "Well," said Harry, face falling, "I guess we overestimated Malfoy's conscience.  Anybody have another idea?"

            "Don't give up yet, Harry," Ginny said with determination.  "I've still got some ideas about Malfoy.  Good thing I don't need to sleep.  See you in the morning!"  With that, she whisked away through the wall, leaving her friends bewildered in her wake.  

            A good thing about being a ghost, Ginny reflected as she drifted through the hallways, was that no teacher or prefect could ever tell her to get to bed.  She was a law unto herself.    
And as a law unto herself, she could go wherever she pleased.  With that thought in mind, she drifted into the dungeons and through a wall into the Slytherin common room.

            She wrinkled her nose as she looked around.  Everything was hard and unwelcoming, exactly like the Slytherins themselves.  Luckily for her plan, there was no one left in the common room at this late hour.  She thought it must be near midnight, and remembered with a sigh when she had been able to curl up in a warm bed and go to sleep.  If this worked, there were a lot of things she would never take for granted again.  

            Two hallways led out of the green and silver room, gently sloping downwards.  Ginny chose the one on the left for no real reason and floated down it.  She poked her head through a door and immediately knew that she'd chosen wrong.  The room was decorated with metallic silver and sickly pink, and makeup was scattered on every available surface.  There were posters of bodybuilders and teen-heartthrobs on the walls, flexing their muscles and grinning with mouths full of very white teeth.  Ginny had to stifle her sniggers as she backed out of the room.  The Slytherin girls really were pathetic.

            She floated back to the common room and down the other tunnel, feeling a little surer of herself.  The first room she came to held several Slytherin boys whom she didn't recognize…first years by the look of them.  When the boys sleeping in the next room looked only a little older, she decided to just skip a couple of rooms, since they were probably roomed by order of year.  When she reached the right door, she entered slowly and poked her head through the curtains of the first bed.  Goyle's ugly face looked up at her, and the horrendous noise of his snoring would have burst her eardrums if she'd been alive.  Ginny thankfully withdrew her head, and the racket stopped.  She guessed that the other boys had put a silencing charm on his bed so that they'd be able to sleep.  

            She had better luck with the next bed.  There was Malfoy, looking very small and pale against the dark forest green bedclothes.  He didn't snore, but was restless, tossing back and forth as though he was in the grip of a bad dream.  Ginny figured it would not be long before he woke.  She carefully entered the curtains of his bed and floated at the foot of it, watching him intently.

            Malfoy thrashed as if he was trying to escape from his covers and moaned a little in his sleep.  Ginny felt an unexpected wave of compassion for him.  Nightmares were never pleasant, and she was rather well acquainted with them, after the debacle of her first year.  She floated nearer reached out a hand to gently brush the sweat-soaked silver-blonde hair from his forehead.

            Ginny found herself in the midst of a whirlwind, being sucked inside Malfoy's dreaming mind.  She was shocked and irritated.  Of all the things….she hadn't _meant_ for this to happen.  

            Ginny found herself in a dry and barren wasteland.  Gray crags reached up to the overcast sky and a wailing wind whipped through the rocky valleys.  Malfoy was nowhere to be seen.  

            She began to walk.  When she had been inside Harry's mind, when she had begun to walk, she had come upon him immediately.  Though Harry's mind, she thought peevishly, had been much more pleasant to wander about in.  This place was just ugly.  She scrambled up a ridge and looked down into a bowl-shaped valley.

            Ginny gasped.  This place was nothing like the dry, dead wasteland which she had walked through before.  A sapphire river ran through the valley, nurturing a forest of towering trees.  Spanish moss dripped from their branches, and silver mist swirled around the forest floor.  The effect was strangely beautiful yet disturbing.  

            The farther Ginny walked inside the forested valley, the brighter the air seemed to become.  By the time she reached the river in the center of the valley, the air was warm and welcoming, and the sky was a beautiful blue to match the glistening waters.  The trees were glowing green with health, and their bark had a slight silvery shimmer.  Ginny grinned in spite of herself.  Malfoy always had to have _something_ to do with Slytherin.  

            Malfoy himself, however, was nowhere to be seen.  Ginny looked around in confusion.  Surely Malfoy would be here and not in that other, ugly part of his mind…Acting on instinct, Ginny looked up through the trees to the other side of valley.  There, upon the circular ridge, stood Malfoy, looking longingly at the valley, but not making any effort to descend.  Ginny waved at him and beckoned to him to come down, but he only shook his head stubbornly.  She sighed, and began to make her way up to him.

            The air became colder as she moved away from the river.  The whole place seemed to have an air of disdain for her.  Ginny knew that she was unwelcome as she climbed up the ridge to Malfoy, but her own obstinacy kept her going.  Obviously Malfoy wouldn't welcome her.  That was why she was here.

            "Hello," she said to him, carefully keeping her voice neutral.

            "Hello," he replied in the exact same tone, and then went back to looking down at the valley.

            "Why don't you go down there?" Ginny asked.  "It's much warmer."  She shivered a bit as the cold wind cut through her clothes.  One benefit of ghostliness: She never had to worry about the weather.

            "I can't go down there," Draco said, with a shiver of his own.  "I've tried."

            "Why not?" Ginny asked, suppressing a dozen cutting comments that flowed into her mind.

            "I'll get hurt.  It always happens.  Look," he said, and he pulled up his sleeve to show a huge gash along one arm, the edges of the flesh blackened and raw.  "I did try, you see.  But I can't."

            Ginny felt another rush of compassion for him.  If only there was some way she could help…she knew he'd be much easier to live with if only he could reach that other part of his mind.  The wasteland was only a façade, no matter how extensive it was.  Here was another part of Draco Malfoy that no one had ever been allowed to see.

            "Maybe…maybe you just need a little help to get there," Ginny suggested timidly.  Draco's head swiveled to look at her intensely.  

            "No!  I'll just get hurt even more if I accept help.  And so will you."  

            "D'you know that?" Ginny asked quietly.  "Have you ever actually accepted help before?"

            He shook his head slowly but said nothing.

            "Maybe you should give it a try," she suggested delicately.

            "No," he said stubbornly.  "You can't help me.  No one can."

            "My," Ginny said laughingly, "aren't we melodramatic tonight?"  Draco looked at her in shock.  Obviously no one had ever spoken to him in quite that tone before, not to make fun of him, but to laugh with him.  He smiled hesitantly.

            "Look," said Ginny, "I've already been down there, and nothing's hurt _me_.  Why don't you give it a try?"  On impulse, she reached for his hand.  Draco gave her a strange look, as though he'd never met anyone quite like her…especially within his own head.

            "Well…" he said, and Ginny knew that he wouldn't need much more prodding.

            "Come on.  Nothing stops the great Draco Malfoy, right?" she said it jokingly though, and Malfoy gave her another astonished look which quickly turned to one of apprehension.

            "Nothing stops a Malfoy…" he said slowly, "except another Malfoy."  He rubbed his arm nervously.

            "Another Malfoy is keeping you out?" Ginny said, puzzled.  "Who?"

            "My father," Draco shivered.

            Ginny's mouth opened in shock.  Of course.  Who else could frighten Draco?  

            "And you're going to let him _win_?" Ginny said indignantly.  "Well, I'm not!  He killed me, but I'm still around, aren't I?  You're still alive, you can do plenty about him."

            Draco looked discouraged.  "No I can't.  I'm just like him.  How can you fight yourself?"

            "You're _not_ like him.  I'd bet you anything that he doesn't have even one nice place in his mind like your valley.  He's _trying_ to make you like him by keeping you away from it.  D'you _want_ to be like him?" Ginny said crossly.

            "_No_!" said Draco, with more vehemence than Ginny had ever seen him use with anything except tormenting Harry.

            "Well, then, it's obvious what you have to do.  Get down there," Ginny saw his face hardening with resolve and grinned with satisfaction.  But then Draco turned back to her.

            "And what's in it for you?" he said suspiciously.  

            "Me?" Ginny said in surprise.  She wanted Malfoy's help, but she didn't want to tell him that, now did she?  Well, why not?  A favor for a favor…. "I need _your_ help.  I help you, and then you help me in return.  It's only fair.  It's what friends do."

            "Friends?" a hint of Malfoy's trademark sneer appeared on his face.  "Since when have we been friends?"

            "Since now," Ginny replied complacently.  "It's much easier to judge a person when you're inside their head, y'know.  And I like what I see…well, I like what I see down there.  And I'll put up with the rest of it," she gestured to the dead desert around them, "for the sake of that," and she gestured down to the lush forest.

            Draco looked at her strangely again, and then nodded.  With that, he started down into the valley, Ginny beside him.  Now she was what he found so threatening about the forest.  The trees reached out with long branches to snag on their clothing, and the roots lumped out of the forest floor to trip them.  The fog thickened around them so that they had no idea where they were going.  Draco's face told her how deeply afraid he was of this place, but Ginny kept herding him on determinedly.  

            Through a deep fog bank ahead of them, a huge shadow loomed.  It had the look of a man, tall and cloaked in black.  Draco caught sight of it as soon as Ginny did, and turned to run in panic.  Ginny grabbed the back of his robes, determined that he would not back out now that they were this far.  She kept dragging him forward, toward the menacing shadow, until they broke out of the fog, and the shadow was revealed as nothing more than a tree stump, blasted by lightening.  Draco stopped fighting her and looked sheepish, then angry.

            "What a nasty, rotten thing to do!  You should have let me go."  He said furiously.

            "Why?  So that you could go back to being scared of everything?  Friends give each other what they need, and not necessarily what they want," Ginny replied angrily, quoting a variation of one of her mother's favorite sayings.  "There's no need to get scared and run away from a tree."

            Draco glared at her, and then put his nose in the air and continued walking forward, as if to prove that he was no coward.  Ginny grinned and said, "Now that's more like it!"  He turned around and looked at her in amazement, then smiled uncertainly back.  She took a few steps forward and then they moved onward into the forest together.

            They reached the river with no further mishap, although the closer they got, the more nervous Draco became.  His apprehension melted away, however, when he gazed around him at the beauty in the very center of the valley.  He sat down on the moss by the river and sighed with contentment.

            "I haven't been here since I was a very little boy, and Lucius didn't care about me yet.  Then I grew up…and he told me that no true Malfoy would ever be found in a place like this.  So I left.  Willingly.  And then when I wanted to come back….he wouldn't let me."

            Ginny sat down beside him, and put her hand comfortingly over his.  "Well, you're here now.  I told you all you needed was a little help."

            Draco smiled at her.  It was a true smile, full of happiness, an expression she had never seen on his face before.  He opened his mouth to say something…

            But the word was swirling away and dissolving into darkness.  Ginny found herself once more within the shadowed darkness of Draco's bed.  He was awake and glaring at her, eyes full of malice.  

            "Get out of my bed, muggle-lover.  Get away from me!"  He sat up, still looking very frail and white against the darkness, almost as though he was a ghost himself.  "I know that spying on me sleeping has got to be the most entertaining thing you've ever done, but maybe you should go ogle Potter instead."

            "Sorry," said Ginny comfortably.  "I did that last night."  Malfoy looked at her in shock.  He had obviously expected her to get angry. "Oh, come on, Draco.  I've been inside your head.  I know you now.  Don't pull all that 'I hate the world' crap with me.  I know better."  

Draco stared at her with his eyes bulging out of his head.  Finally, he said, "I thought that was all a dream…"

"Sorry, that was real.  About as real as anything gets for a ghost, anyway," Ginny answered sardonically.

Draco swore.  "Go away," he said rudely, but then amended it by saying, "I need time to think."

Ginny nodded and smiled at him.  He was clearly unnerved by it and didn't smile in return.  _Oh well,_ thought Ginny, _you can only have so much progress in one night, after all._  She floated out of his bed, startling Crabbe, who had a large piece of chocolate cake and was eating it noisily.  She stuck out her tongue at him, and then zipped out of the tunnel and through the empty common room.  In very few moments, she found herself back in the Gryffindor common room, which was also empty.  She settled down to wait for the rest of the school to wake up and took advantage of the quiet to sort out her own muddled thoughts.

What, exactly, had just happened?

~*~

A/N: Well, Draco was just a tad OOC, wasn't he?  But let me take this moment to assure you that it was only because he was inside his head and didn't think any of it was real.  He'll go back to being his usual annoying self in real life, I hope.  I just hope I can do his annoyingly superior self justice.  Wish me luck!

Thank you to my amazingly spiffy reviewers!

Cariel: Thanks for giving my fic the chance to prove itself unique!  I do my best never to just copy what everyone else has already done.  As for the true love thing…yeah, it was a little trite, wasn't it?  Oh well…not much I can do to change it now.  I kinda meant it to be funny…Hermione getting all starry-eyed and girly…but it didn't come out sounding like that.  Oops?

Pseudonym Sylphmouse: Thanks for reviewing again!  I'm really happy that you're following my story.

Kawaii Yoshi: Thanks a lot!  Here you go, more HP goodness.

Bucky: Wow, I'm so happy you came back to read some more!  I'm really sorry about the wait…*looks sheepish*

Temporary Insanity: I'm glad everything's clear now.  *looks relieved*  And as for Malfoy…I'm still working on him.  Who knows how he'll end up?

Mike: Yes dear…..

Bessorla: Yes, the name does give you away, as you very well know!  I hope this satisfies your fanfic cravings for a little while at least….Thanks for the review!


	9. Into the Serpent's Mouth

A/N: It took me a while to get motivated to write this…help me keep going by writing reviews!  Thanks!

Chapter 9 ~ Into the Serpent's Mouth

            Ron, Harry, and Hermione sat eating breakfast dejectedly, each wracking his or her brain to figure out a path to the illusive Lucius Malfoy.  Ginny floated in the background, unsure whether to smile in triumph or frown in defeat.  Draco Malfoy was a very slippery character and he might yet decide to have nothing to do with them.  She kept sneaking glances at the Slytherin table where Malfoy sat sulkily between Crabbe and Goyle, staring fixedly at his plate.  When he still hadn't looked up by the end of breakfast, she began to doubt.  

            A swarm of owls descended on the Gryffindor table carrying the daily post.  A sleek silver owl with ebony and ivory highlights streaked toward Ginny, much to her surprise, but then hovered uncertainly, not sure how to deliver a letter to a ghost.  

            "Give it to Harry," Ginny instructed the owl.  It landed majestically and dropped the letter in front of Harry before flying away.  She floated closer to look at the mysterious letter.  Who would be sending post to a dead person?  

            Across the front of the letter, "To Ginny Weasley" was scrawled messily in silver ink.  It was clearly a boy's handwriting and Harry gave Ginny an odd look.  She shrugged.

            "I've no more idea who it's from than you do, Harry," she said.  He shrugged as well and smiled warmly at her.  She couldn't resist smiling back and for a moment neither of them wanted to move.  

Then Ron broke in, "Oy, are you going to open that letter or not?  The rest of us are dying to see who it's from and you two are sitting there staring at each other like love-struck loons!"  Harry elbowed him in the side and Ron wheezed a laugh.  

Harry turned back to Ginny and asked, "Well, shall I?"

"Sure," she replied noncommittally, though a sneaking suspicion had entered her mind as to the identity of the sender.  If it was from whom she thought…she sneaked another glance across the room at the Slytherin table.  He was still staring at his untouched food.  Something was definitely up.

Harry ripped open the envelope and unfolded the parchment inside.  The same untidy scrawl ran across the parchment in crooked lines.  

"Dear Gryffindors," it read.  "I believe we have matters of some importance to discuss.  Meet me tonight in the Slytherin common room at midnight.  I trust that you know where it is and can reach it unseen."  It was signed, "From a Slytherin."  As soon as they had finished reading, it crumbled into ash in Harry's hands.

Ginny was ecstatic.  Draco had taken her bait and made the first real move in the dance of alliance.  Now they had to do their best not to stumble or tread on anyone's feet.

~*~

            All four of the Gryffindors sat in the common room that night, fidgeting nervously.  Harry had taken out his sword and was polishing the knots on the handle handle idly.  Ron had bullied Seamus into joining him in a game of wizard's chess, and was letting off some steam by beating Seamus spectacularly seven times in a row.  Seamus had gotten fed up at least three times within that period and stormed off, but always seemed to come back with fresh determination.  Hermione was plowing through a hugely dull book on the afterlife which compared Christian conceptions with those of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures.  She had read about half of the seven hundred and eighty-two page book in the past two hours and had never once lifted her head during the entire time.  Ginny was occupying her time by popping out of walls to scare Parvati, Lavender, Neville, and any available first years.  Neville screamed shrilly as Ginny flew through the fireplace and right into the marshmallow he'd been toasting.  The marshmallow dropped into the flames and withered away as he glared reproachfully at Ginny.  She only giggled and zoomed up through the ceiling.

            Gradually, the other students went to their beds and Seamus got so sick of Ron beating him at chess that he tossed the board and pieces across the room and stormed up to bed.  The chess pieces landed in a tangled heap on the carpet and immediately started a brawl.  Harry and Ron had quite a time separating them, and get several bruised fingers for their efforts.  Hermione watched with veiled amusement as they scrambled across the carpet and Ginny giggled openly, earning her a look of reproof from Ron.  Harry just flashed her one of his wonderful smiles and went back to breaking up the black and white queens' catfight.  

            As midnight tolled throughout the school, Harry solemnly brought out his invisibility cloak and swirled it across them.  When he, Ron, and Hermione were covered, they opened the portrait hole and slipped outside, Ginny floating just behind.  

            "D'you remember where the Slytherin common room is?" Ron hissed at Harry.  "It was four years ago that we were there last and it's all fuzzy for me."

            "_Honestly_, don't you boys _ever_ plan ahead?" Hermione scolded softly, apparently forgetting that she too could have participated in planning the venture.

"I _think_ I've got a fairly good idea, but I don't see how we're going to find out the password." Harry hissed back at Ron, ignoring Hermione's rebuke.  "For all we know, Malfoy could be setting a trap to get us caught sneaking around at night!"

            Ginny slipped inside the cloak and whispered directly into Harry's ear, "No, he's not, I know exactly where the Slytherin common room is, and you can leave finding the password to me.  And _be quiet_!"  The three looked sheepish and obeyed.  

            Ginny took the lead and floated down the corridors toward the dungeons, doing her best to look aimless and bored.  When they reached the door, she whispered, "Wait here!" and drifted inside.

            Draco had seated himself in a throne-like chair before the fire.  His pale hands curled over the carved wooden snakes of the armrests.  He had dressed in a black velvet robe and wore a thick silver necklace about his neck with a matching bracelet on each wrist.  He had done his best to make himself imposing and had succeeded fairly well.  

            "Draco," Ginny said quietly, "Draco, we're here.  Tell me the password and I'll let the others in."

            He nodded curtly and said, "Basilisk."  Ginny shuddered and floated outside again.

            Harry went white with rage when he heard the password refused to say it.  Hermione sighed heavily and said it for him.  A huge stone column carved to resemble a serpent writhed away from its place on the wall to reveal an ached walkway barely wide enough to admit one person at once.  After looking around carefully to make sure there were no watchers, the three removed the invisibility cloak and entered the Slytherin common room with trepidation.

            Harry eyed Draco's prepared finery coldly.  He was not impressed by the display of wealth.  Ron's lip curled with disdain and he seemed about to comment, but Hermione gripped his arm tightly and he subsided, glaring daggers at Malfoy's impassive face.  Ginny floated forward again.

            "Well, Draco, we're here.  What was it you wished to talk to us about?" she said calmly.

            "You know very well what I wanted to talk about, Weasley.  A deal."  Draco was ill at ease, despite his efforts to appear serene.  His hands kept clenching on the chair's arms until he consciously relaxed them and his face was a stiff mask.

            "What deal did you have in mind?" Harry said, projecting a calm confidence which seemed to make Draco even more uncomfortable.  

            "You want something of me." Draco stated imperiously.  "Tell me what it is and I will consider it."

            Ginny laughed, the sound echoing through the still room like ripples in water, leaving everything unsettled behind it.  Everyone else looked at her in surprise.  

            "Always the diplomat, my friend.  Drop the pretenses.  We both know the truth."   She smiled benignly at Draco as he gaped at her.  Then his face darkened and he made an obscene gesture toward her.  To his immense shock, she laughed again.  "That's not _you_, my friend.  Remember?  I _know_ you, and I won't deal with an imposter."

            For a moment, Draco's mouth opened and closed in shock.  His eyes were wide as he stared at Ginny.  Very obviously, he had no idea what to make of the situation, and that in itself seemed to decide him.  

            Draco slumped forward in his chair and then propped his head on one of his hands, massaging his temples as if his head hurt him.  When he looked up again, he had lost his cold hauteur and merely seemed very tired.

            "So?" he said in a defeated tone of voice.  "Are you gonna tell me or not?"  Ginny smiled.  

            "But of course!" she said and led her group toward him.  They took seats on a plush green couch which had been positioned to face Draco's chair.  Draco leaned forward and rested his head in both hands.  Hermione kept a tight grip on Ron's arm, as he was still looking murderously at Malfoy.  Harry was looking curiously at Ginny, not having understood any of what had just taken place.  He resolved to get her alone and find out later.  At the moment, there was more important business at hand.

            "So?" Draco asked again once they were all seated, and looked instinctively toward Harry for answers.

            "Well," Harry said slowly, uncertain how to best frame their request, "we're working on a very important project right now and we seem to have run into a dead end.  _You_ would be the perfect person to help us out."

            "Stop beating around the bush and tell me what you _need_ from me.  I already know that you need my help.  Now tell me what for."  Malfoy sounded weary more than impatient.

            "Ok." Harry said, a bit surprised by Draco's manner.  "Here's the deal.  We're gonna resurrect Ginny and we need some of your father's flesh for the spell to work.  We were hoping you could help us get close enough to him to get it."

            Draco's mouth was hanging open.  "You people are crazy!" he said, his voice cracking.  "There's no way you could get that close to my father without him knowing…there's no way you could restrain him, and there sure as hell is no way that you could cut him up against his will!"  

            "As to the first, well, that's what you're for.  As for the second and third…we're still working on that.  We were kinda hoping that you could help us out with brainstorming on that too.  After all, you must know about his protections and safeguards.  You'll know his habits and weaknesses." Harry replied calmly.

            "He doesn't have any weaknesses," Draco said shakily, hiding his head in his hands again.  "I can't believe you're even contemplating this."

            "We're more than contemplating it.  We're going to _do_ it, with or without your help," Hermione chimed in.  "Ginny is our friend, and we're going to do whatever it takes to give her back the life that was stolen from her by _your_ father."

            "You know for sure then?" Draco said, lifting his head.  "It's definite?"

            "Yes." Ginny whispered.  "He's the one who controls me.  He is my master."

            "Your _master_?" Draco sounded shocked and betrayed.  

            "No, no, no!" Ginny exclaimed, seeing his distress.  "Not like that!  It's just that sometimes…he can control my actions."

            Harry spoke up.  "It's something we just recently found out.  If a ghost is killed by Avada Kedavra, the caster of the spell can control the ghost and force it to do his bidding.  You can tell when a ghost is controlled because the eyes turn the same green as the death spell."  Harry shuddered a little with his own memories and then regained control of himself.

            "Ok," said Draco, "I can see why you need _me_, but," he continued with a touch of his usual asperity, "what am _I_ going to get out of it?"

            Harry looked clueless and just shook his head helplessly, but Ginny floated forward until she was only inches in front of Draco.

            "Freedom," she whispered to him.  "The chance to prove that you are _not_ your father's son.  The chance to reclaim that sunlit valley in your mind.  _Freedom_."  She saw his eyes light with her words and knew that he was with them.  She floated back to her place beside Harry.

            Draco leaned toward them, his pale cheeks flushed with excitement.  "Alright," he said, "Lucius has pretty extensive protections on the mansion and even more on himself,  Our best bet would be to catch him away from home, but he's put protections on his ministry office too, so that's no good.  I'd say we should go for sometime he's en route to the club where he meets with his cronies."

            Harry nodded.  That made good sense to him.  "So what are his personal protections like?"

            "That's going to be the hard part.  I'd say that you, Weasley, and I could deal with him physically, but as for magically…well, he's pretty formidable.  He never got around to teaching me even a quarter of the dark spells he knows, probably so that I'd have no defense against them if he ever had to cast them on me." Draco's mouth twisted with cynicism.  It was all Harry could do to keep from looking sympathetic.  But it _was_ Malfoy…how could he ever be sympathetic to him?  Harry turned his attention back to Malfoy's words.  

            "First off, he's got a sensor spell that detects anyone with hostile intentions within a ten-foot radius.  That…well, I can get past that since I _always_ have hostile intentions, and he knows it.  He also regards me as harmless.  So if you guys stay just behind me until we get close enough to attack, the spell should only pick up my hostility.  Next off, he has a pair of demon bodyguards who can break the spine of any attacker faster than you can say 'snitch'.  Lucius likes to reward them with the dead assailants entrails on a platter.  And he likes to make me watch them eat." This time, Harry didn't bother to hide his sympathy, and Hermione made a sound of disgust.  Even Ron neglected to look enraged for a moment.  Draco looked surprised at their reactions and his icy demeanor thawed a bit.

            "Well, the one weakness about that is that if we actually manage to take a demon out," an eloquently lifted eyebrow indicated how unlikely this was, "then Lucius will likely collapse.  The spell isn't set to include its breaking and it'll backlash."  He looked skeptically at Harry, who was grinning broadly.  "Are you not hearing what I'm saying?  It's fairly hopeless unless you have some way of magically killing demons tucked up your sleeve."

            "Well, not up my sleeve, but back in my dorm, yes, I do," Harry replied jauntily and enjoyed Draco's dropped jaw.  "I just recently came into possession of a sword which can either kill or capture demons."  Draco's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

            "You mean, you're…?  You've got the damned sword?  _You're_ the one all the Death Eaters were hunting?" Draco started laughing, almost hysterically, and had to be saved by Hermione from falling off of his seat.  He regained his composure and waved her away, still chuckling.

            "It's been so quiet lately because the Death Eaters have been distracted from trying to kill _you_," and he pointed dramatically at Harry, "by their search for this mysterious person who suddenly surfaced with the last of the four Spirit Blades.  And here I find out you're one and the same!  How many reasons does the Dark Lord want you dead for now, Harry Potter?"

            "Too many to count probably.  Why not add another one?" Harry said gloomily.  Ginny floated closer and placed an ephemeral hand on his shoulder.  He looked up as he felt a breath of wind by his neck and smiled at her wanly.  

            Draco frowned and looked at the huge clock above the mantel.  "You should all be going back to your common rooms.  Meet me here again night after next?"  It was more a question than a command, and all four of the Gryffindors nodded their assent.  They stood and filed out of the room through the narrow doorway, Harry waiting until last.  Just before he exited, he turned to Draco and nodded slowly, once.  Draco nodded wordlessly back, and Harry slipped beneath the invisibility cloak with his friends to make the journey back to Gryffindor, the unspoken accord lightening his heart.

~*~

A/N: Thank you to my reviewers, I love every one of you.  And I'm not going to say anymore because it's 1:00 in the morning and I should by all rights be asleep.  I hope you all appreciate the effort I put into writing this!

Pseudonym Sylphmuse: Well, thanks a bundle, and I would just like to quickly apologize for mistyping your name as Pseudonym Sylphmouse….ummm, oops?

Veldan: Yeah, I had to get in a few good digs at the Slytherin girls.  This'll be waiting for you to read when you get back!

Silver Witch: Thanks!  Hehehe, I'm always obsessed with things…it's interesting to think I might inspire obsession in another.  I hope the wait wasn't too agonizing!

Bessorla: Thank you, thank you…*takes a bow*…and as for the larger plot thing…well, I could or I could not.  I guess it depends on how motivated I am.  So motivate me!

Your boyfriend: Well, I made you wait on this one.  I know, I'm evil.  :-P


	10. The Guardian of the Sword

A/N: Well, here 'tis, and it's not easy getting it to you.  I don't have an internet connection anymore, so…here I am, giving the chapter to my faithful friend Veldan to post for me, bless her heart.  Special special thanks to such a wonderful and selfless friend who makes it possible to me to supply my readers with their tenth dose of ghostly goodness.

Yes, well, the first time this was posted, the chapter ended right about…here.  Veldan, I love you dearly, but what the hell did you do to the rest of my chapter???  Good thing I got my internet back tonight…

Chapter 10 ~ The Guardian of the Sword

            Ginny rested on the shadows inside the heavy, red velvet of Harry's bed curtains, watching his face in the steady blue glow which she radiated.  His face looked older, wiser, almost otherworldly.  It wasn't the face of a boy of sixteen but rather the face of a man in the middle of a war, steadfast and certain of victory.  She sighed and thought of herself, nothing but a little, redheaded girl.  She was younger in years, younger in spirit, and younger in mind than Harry had ever been and she felt that chasm between them now more keenly than she ever had before.  And now, even worse, she would stay fifteen forever while he grew and matured and lived his life.  What chance, truly, had their mad plan of working?  Despair gripped her heart and she left Harry in the shadows to soar aimlessly through the halls.

            The night was eerily quiet and she saw no one in the halls, not even a hungry first year attempting to find the kitchens.  The other ghosts avoided her, though she didn't know why, and the solitude and silence of the halls made her want to wail and rattle things, like the ghoul in the attic had done at home.  Home…._this_ was her home now and would be for the rest of time.  She flew faster, her lank, transparent locks whisked behind her, paying no attention to where she was going.  

            The shadows reached for her and the air itself seemed to be crying a mournful dirge…but it wasn't the air.  The sound came from somewhere ahead of her, and she moved forward more circumspectly, curious in spite of her black mood.  She drifted down a spiraling ramp lined by white marble columns and tiled in light blue.  The farther down she went, the darker the marble became and the grayer the tiles were.  By the time the path leveled out, her eyes rested on black marble columns and tiles of dull ash gray.  The path opened out into a large hall with a dry pool in the center of it.  Tiles on the floor and walls were cracked and chipped and the sides of the pool were caked with dried scum.  On one wall, between the columns, there was a large portrait of a young man with black wings and sad eyes.  When he saw Ginny, he opened his wings wide and then furled them around him like a shield against the world.  The desperate sobbing echoed around the room, bouncing from wall to wall and ringing in Ginny's ears.  

            There…in the far corner, a bluish glow trembled and moaned.  Ginny approached it cautiously, ready to flee at the least sign of hostility.  As she drifted closer, the glow defined itself into shivering feathers enclosing their owner in much the same way as the black wings of the man in the portrait had done.  Their transparent luminescence matched Ginny's own and a small gasp escaped her lips.  Here was a Hogwarts ghost whom she had certainly never met.

            At Ginny's gasp, the ghost's sobs stopped abruptly and a wide, frightened eye peeked from behind one of the wings.  

            "Ummm…hi?" Ginny said uncertainly to the ghost, wondering what might happen next.  

            For a moment, the only response was the continued staring of that one eye, but then a hesitant "Hi," emerged from behind the glowing wings.  The voice sounded young and high, like the voice of a child.

            "What's your name?" Ginny asked gently, trying to be friendly and unthreatening.  

            "What's yours?" the child shot back suspiciously.  The tentative smile faded from Ginny's lips to be replaced with uncertainty.

            "My name's Ginny Weasley," she said.

            "Oh," was her reply.  "It's _you_."

            Ginny gaped for a moment and then floundered mentally until she recovered the power of speech.  

            "What d'you mean, it's _me_?  What do you know about me?"

            "Oh, well…" the girl-child said, lowering her wings and standing straight to face Ginny, "I just heard some things…here and there."  The measuring look bestowed upon Ginny made her suspicious.  

            "What exactly did you hear?" Ginny said, her voice thick wish distrust. 

            "Oh, just…things…" the girl said, fanning her wings in an attitude of complete disinterest.  Her eyes twinkled mischievously when she looked at Ginny, however.

            "Oh, well it can't be very interesting, then, if it's just _things_," Ginny responded, faking a similar boredom.

            "Oh, but it's _very_ interesting," the girl said, in an abrupt change of mind.  "Very, _very_ interesting."

            "I don't think so," Ginny said with a yawn.  She looked the girl over disdainfully.  "In fact, I'm getting rather bored now, so I think that I'll leave."

            The girl paled, though how she managed to do that with her blue-white complexion, Ginny didn't know.  "No, no, no, don't leave!  I'll tell you, just don't leave,"

            "Well, go ahead, and let's see if you can keep my interest," Ginny said, feeling sympathetic to the girl's obvious loneliness, but unwilling to totally excuse the hard time she'd been given.

            "I heard the other ghosts talking.  They don't like me very much, 'cause I was Dominated and I guess I'm not good enough for them or something…but I was listening to a conversation and I heard them talking about a new ghost who didn't know her place.  Said she thought she was still alive.  Spent all her time hanging around living people and didn't stay properly with the dead.  Said she thought she was too good for the dead.  Even said she had plans to go back to being alive.  And they said…" the winged ghost giggled, "They said you had a _living_ boyfriend."

            A hurt had been growing inside Ginny as she listened to the accusations which were so patently false, but she was temporarily distracted by something the ghost had said early on.  

            "_Dominated?  What's that mean?" Ginny asked, wary of looking ignorant and foolish, but unable to subdue her curiosity.  The girl sighed deeply and gave Ginny a long-suffering look before answering._

            "Dominated is when a ghost was killed with Avada Kedavra and their murderer decides to keep control of them.  I guess I'm the first Hogwarts ghost with the affliction, so the others avoid me.  It's like they think I'm contaminated or something, even though I'm stronger now than they'll _ever be, in life __or death…" her voice trailed off in bitterness and Ginny understood her loneliness even more fully.  Here was someone who was just like her…_

            "Will you tell me now what your name is?" Ginny asked in a more gentle tone than she had been using.  She got another look of suspicion for her pains, but chose to ignore it.

            "Why're you so desperate to get my name?" the girl asked bitterly.  "It's not as if you'll ever speak to me again, now that you know about Domination."

            "Of course I will.  It doesn't bother me that you're Dominated, as long as it doesn't bother you that I am, too."  Ginny had to force that confession out, and it sounded rather breathless and rushed even to her ears.  The other ghost just gaped at her.

            "You too…?  No.  That's not true."  The girl's glare was full of malice.  "What do you _really want from me?"_

            "A friend," Ginny whispered, feeling the pain of her own situation in the girl's desperate bitterness.  "Someone who understands and doesn't avoid me."

            The little girl looked at her curiously, fanning her wings behind her, bewilderment clear in her eyes.  After a long pause, she nodded slowly.

            "My name was Liandra Trevoy when I was alive.  As a ghost, they've called me the Winged Demon."  Liandra made a face.  "I couldn't get a pretty name like the Gray Lady, no…just because I was enslaved by demons they decide to believe that I'm one as well.  You'd think they'd know better."

            "Well, I think Liandra is a lovely name, and I certainly don't intend to call you the Winged Demon!  That is pretty foolish of them not to know the difference.  After all, I'm the newest ghost around, and _I can tell you're not a demon."_

            Liandra smiled with surprised delight at Ginny's support and nodded enthusiastically.  

            "Liandra…what is this place?" Ginny asked, looking at her surroundings again.  "It's beautiful in a sad, despairing sort of way, but I can't imagine why this place is here."

            "It used to be the Hogwarts swimming pool when I was enrolled here," Liandra replied.  "We used to come down here and splash around and swim and we had the most wonderful times.  It was so beautiful then and it wasn't at all sad…it's changed, you see.  The room became sad when the children stopped coming to visit and so it changed its colors.  It was so light and beautiful and I'd put a spell on my wings so that I could swim without getting my feathers wet.  Then I'd fly up to the ceiling and dive down into the water…ooh, it was fun.  But then Will drowned and nobody would come near the room."  Liandra lapsed into silence.

            "Somebody drowned here?  That's awful…no wonder no one comes down here anymore.  But why would he drown?  Why didn't someone save him?" Ginny queried, thinking of levitating spells.

            "He didn't want anyone to save him," Liandra whispered, remembered sorrow clear in her voice.  "He wanted to drown, so he did.  That's him, right there," She pointed to the portrait on the wall, the young man still enveloped in his black feather cape.  "I painted it for him, after he drowned.  He always wanted to have wings, so I gave them to him."  Liandra sighed sadly.  

            "It's a beautiful painting," Ginny said, feeling boorish for bringing up a subject which was so obviously painful.  

            "It's not half of what he deserved.  He would have been famous if he'd grown up a bit more.  He was the _best_ student Hogwarts ever had!"  The small girl's chin jutted aggressively, daring Ginny to challenge the statement.  Ginny decided not to take the challenge, under the circumstances.  She somehow doubted that this mysterious Will could have been better at spells than Hermione, braver than Harry, or more fun than Ron, but didn't want to argue with the determined girl defending her long-dead friend.  

            "I couldn't help but notice that you weren't very happy when I came down here," Ginny said, changing the subject.  "D'you want to talk about it?"

            "You'll laugh," Liandra said, the look of suspicion back in her eyes.

            "I wouldn't," Ginny said, adopting a tone of injury.  "I would never, not when you were to upset about it."

            Liandra looked at her for a moment more, but then sighed and seemed to surrender.  

            "I don't have a purpose anymore.  Now that the sword has been claimed--"

            "The sword?  _You_ were the one guarding Harry's sword!" Ginny gasped in revelation.

            "You know the sword bearer?" Liandra asked in a similar tone of amazement.  "Who is he?"

            "It's Harry Potter.  He's my so-called 'living boyfriend'," Ginny said, her mouth twisting wryly at the memory of the ghosts' condescending conversation.

            "Harry Potter…" Liandra said, rolling the name off her tongue as if she tasted it.  "Both my savior and my curse."

            "Why your curse?" Ginny asked curiously.  "How can freeing you from whoever was controlling you be bad?"

            "I don't have anything to _do_ anymore," Liandra explained.  "My purpose is gone.  I thought that once the sword had been either claimed or protected, the Lord Ayshra would destroy me, or if he was feeling generous, release me to go on to the afterlife.  But he didn't.  He released me and left me here.  And what is there for me here?  I'll spend the rest of eternity being shunned by the other ghosts and gawked at by new students.  Nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to talk to…" Liandra sounded thoroughly depressed by her lot.

            "Well, you can always talk to me," Ginny said cheerfully, trying to bring the other girl out of her sorrow.  "I'll be here for just as long as you will."

            Liandra looked at her askance.  "You shouldn't make promises you can't keep."

            "What do you mean?" Ginny replied, aghast.  "I meant every word of that."

            "And so did I.  You'll be leaving, if your boyfriend has anything to say about it."

            "How did you know what he's trying to do?" Ginny said suspiciously.  "I thought you didn't know him."

            "He's the sword bearer," Liandra shrugged, as if that explained everything.

            "Yes?  And…?" Ginny raised one eyebrow in inquiry.

            "He's not going to lose you to death when he has the power to bring you back.  He's not that kind of person.  No sword bearer is.  That's _why_ they're sword bearers."

            "Oh," Ginny said, her eyes wide.  Obviously there was more to this whole sword thing than she'd thought.  Liandra merely shrugged again.

            "Anyway, you've got your living friends and I've got my memories.  You should go back to them, you know.  You shouldn't get too used to being dead."

            "I have a better idea, Liandra.  Why don't _you_ come and meet my living friends, and then you can remember what it is to be alive.  I don't think I'm likely to forget, but you…" Ginny's voice trailed off.

            "Why would they want to meet _me_?  I'm a _ghost_…" Liandra sounded scornful and derogatory.  

            "They went to Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party once.  I don't think that they're likely to refuse to meet you.  And they do hang out with me on a regular basis.  I don't think they're going to discriminate because you're a ghost.  Come on, what's the worst that can happen?"  Ginny wheedled.  "Come on, we can go to the Gryffindor common room while we wait for them to get up."

            "Well…" Liandra said, her resistance weakening in the face of promised companionship.  "I suppose it can't _hurt_."

            "Nope," Ginny replied cheerily.  "Follow me."  Ginny floated toward the passage through which she'd come, glancing back to make sure that Liandra followed.  She did, albeit with an expression of reluctance on her face.  Ginny threw her an encouraging smile before speeding up.

            "What house were you in?" Ginny asked over her shoulder.  Liandra sped up and floated even with Ginny before she answered.

            "I was in Ravenclaw, of course.  Where else would I go with _these_?" she asked facetiously, flapping her wings.

            "True, true," Ginny said, sharing a smile with the small girl.  

            "If you don't mind my asking…" Liandra trailed off, glancing at Ginny for reassurance.  Ginny nodded, glad that the girl was going to keep up the conversation.

            "Well, how did _you_ die?  And why are you Dominated?"

            Ginny took a deep breath to steady herself.  Memories of the night she died tended to unbalance her already shaky emotions.  Steeling herself, she proceeded to tell Liandra about the night when she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had snuck out into Hogsmeade and straight into Voldemort's trap.  She ended up having to explain quite a lot about Voldemort, since Liandra had been out of touch with the world for hundreds of years.  

            "As for why I'm Dominated…well, I really couldn't say.  I didn't even know what Domination _was_ until you told me.  Harry had a theory, but other than that, it seems to be lost knowledge in this day and age.  Is there any way I can…fight it?" Ginny asked hopefully.

            "Well, _I_ fought it.  It wasn't supposed to be possible, but I did it, so it must be."

            "How?" Ginny said with a painful eagerness.

            "I…don't really know all that clearly.  At first when the Domination was in effect, it was just like going to sleep.  But then I became more aware of what was going on, and it was as if I dreamed it.  And finally I was able to…sort of erect a barrier between the sleep and my mind.  And if I pushed it forward, I was less under control.  If I got it all the way to the front of my mind, I was free.  D'you see?"

            Ginny shook her head in bewilderment.  "No, I don't, really.  I can relate to the going to sleep part, though.  That's how it felt for me.  But…"

            "But it took me hundreds of years to resist.  You need it faster if it's going to do any good at all.  I'll see what else I can remember and let you know," Liandra said with fierce determination.  Ginny nodded her thanks and they continued on their way in silence.

            The halls were very quiet in the early morning stillness.  They passed the occasional portrait whose occupants slept with a faintly heard snore.  One hugely fat and bearded monk snored so badly that his frame vibrated against the wall.  The suits of armor shifted their weight restlessly, creaking irritably, but no human life stirred.  The two ghosts passed unremarked upon through Hogwarts' halls.  

            When they reached the Gryffindor common room, the fire flared up brightly for their benefit.  Ginny and Liandra curled up in front of it to watch its flickering flames, and, grateful of the appreciation, it added touches of bright green and brilliant blue to it's flickering crimson and orange.  They talked of inconsequentials and traded memories of their lives until the sun rose and the first student began to stir in the dormitories above.

~*~

A/N: Ick, I have to call my friend to get the names of all my reviewers.  Thanks, all! 

Domino84: Thanks, and I'm glad you find Draco realistic.  I was kinda resigned to making him _unrealistic_, since I couldn't see a way to really do realism,  but I'm glad it worked anyway!  As for the other Weasley's…thanks for pointing that out.  I was planning to take care of that in this chapter, but I got sidetracked.  Soon.

Bessorla: Thanks for trying to help with the plot, but I've already got a plan for a larger plot…joy of joys, it's so complicated.  Oygh.  Maybe if you ask nicely, I'll discuss it with you, but I'm not gonna spoil it for the rest of my readers. :-P

Temporary Insanity: Nah, nah, nothing so deep as that.  I just like ghosts and demons and such.  Though a dragon animagus is an intriguing idea…but not for this story.  Glad you liked the chapter!

Morgan: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Pseudonym Sylphmuse: Apparently I only skim things as well, if it took my this long to figure out I was spelling it wrong!  You're very welcome, and thanks for reading!

CelticKnight: Well, I had to impose on a friend to get it posted, but I did, and all for you and my other wonderful readers.  I apologize for not being able to notify you immediately about the post, but…as I said before, Internet is down.  Next time!  Promise!

Texas Emma: Thanks and glad you liked it!

Silver Witch: Thank you, thank you…though if you ask some other people, they say I don't update often enough…lol.  

!! 


	11. Gryffindor's Ghost

A/N: I'd just like to thank the wonderful Veldan again for posting the 10th chapter earlier today.This is for you: "_Don't touch the **hair**!_"Hahahahaha…Enjoy, all you wonderful people.

Chapter 11 ~ Gryffindor's Ghost

The sun peeked over the horizon to hopefully view the new day as Ginny and Liandra sat contemplating the flames in the early morning stillness.Their solitude was broken as the portrait hole opened behind them to admit the stern presence of Professor McGonagall.Ginny looked up in surprise, wondering what brought the head of her old house to the common room at such an early hour.It would be useless to try to get a student out of bed at this time, even if they were awake, and she surely knew that.But McGonagall didn't move toward one of the dormitories, but instead came toward the two ghosts.When she stopped in front of them, the tightness of her lips seemed to come from some emotion other than disapproval.Ginny didn't know what could upset McGonagall and wasn't sure she wanted to.Her problems were bad enough and she didn't want any added to them.After all, problems didn't get much worse than being dead.

"Miss Weasley, I've been asked by Professor Dumbledore to escort you to his office.He would like to talk to you first, and then you have some visitors," McGonagall said, her voice sounding choked even though she struggled to disguise it.Ginny's heart fell.There was only one group of people who would come to visit her.How was she to face her family after getting killed in such a senseless way?Ginny nodded her agreement to Professor McGonagall and managed a sickly smile.She turned to Liandra and shrugged.

"I guess you're going to have to wait here without me.I have to go talk to the Headmaster."Ginny tried desperately to ignore the naked fear on the girl's face.After all, _Liandra_ hadn't been summoned, and she really didn't want her new friend there for her reunion with her family."I'm sorry," she said with another shrug.

"It's ok, I know you don't have a choice," Liandra said doubtfully."But what will I do when people start coming down?What if they tell me to go away?"

"Don't worry, just tell them you're waiting for me and if they're mean to you, I'll haunt them until they die," Ginny replied flippantly.Liandra smiled weakly and nodded.Ginny smiled encouragingly and then turned back to McGonagall, gesturing for her to lead the way.Ginny could get to Dumbledore's office much more quickly without her, but it would be rude to arrive unannounced.Besides, she still retained a glimmer of anger toward Dumbledore for what he'd believed about Harry and was in no real hurry to talk with him.

Ginny floated in a daze behind Professor McGonagall, trying very hard not to think of the coming confrontation with her parents and therefore succeeding in thinking of nothing but that.She hardly even noticed when McGonagall came to a stop in front of the stone gargoyle which guarded Dumbledore's office and muttered the password.When she came back to her senses she was gliding up to Dumbledore's cluttered desk as he gazed at her through his half-moon spectacles.The silence continued for a moment and Ginny was unwilling to be the first to break it.Professor McGonagall had quietly excused herself just after they had first entered, and now only Ginny and the Headmaster remained in the office, quietly staring at each other.

"I hope you will convey my apologies to young Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said suddenly and surprisingly."I know by now he will know what I told his friends and must he very hurt that I would think that of him.But the circumstances are very unusual, very unusual indeed…" he trailed off.He looked at Ginny for a moment more."I must confess at this time that I have no idea what is going on within my own walls.The appearance of the Spirit Blade and your subsequent appearance has me baffled, and I find it quite irritating.I am not used to being unable to even formulate a theory as to why things happen.If you could shed any light on the matter…?" he raised one bushy white eyebrow in entreaty.

"What question would you like answered?" Ginny said cautiously, not willing to give away any information that might tip Dumbledore off to their plans.He surely wouldn't approve of several teenage wizards going after Lucius Malfoy and attempting to cut him up.

"The most puzzling aspect of the whole thing is that all of a sudden there are several new ghosts roaming Hogwarts who claim they have been here for up to a hundred years but yet no one has ever seen or heard from them.They all appeared, it seems, at the same time as you and they all were killed by Avada Kedavra."

"I…don't know," Ginny said, raising her brows."It seems like too much of a coincidence to be unrelated, but…probably the same thing made them visible that made _me_ visible.I was here for a while before anyone could see me, too."

"I wonder…what day was it when you found that others were aware of you?Was it by chance the same day on which Harry discovered the Spirit Blade?"

"Why, yes," Ginny said, surprised, "But I don't see why that would change anything since that has nothing to do with freeing ghosts…" Ginny trailed off, her eyes widening with revelation."_Liandra_!When she was freed, I bet the rest of us become visible too!"

"Who is Liandra?" Dumbledore asked eagerly.

"She was the guardian of the Spirit Blade before Harry came.She had been killed by Avada Kedavra in order to control her and make her a formidable opponent to whoever the sword bearer might be.She fought the one who was controlling her to give Harry a chance to get the sword, and then she was freed from her imprisonment to be a normal ghost."

"Hmmm.." Dumbledore sank back in his chair, deep in thought."That explains a great many things," he said after another quiet moment had passed."Alright, I believe that should suffice for the moment, though I will surely want to speak to you again later.Now you have some visitors who are very anxious to meet you."Dumbledore rose and motioned Ginny to follow him as he moved to a door opposite the one she had entered by.When he opened it, she saw a richly appointed waiting room with many plush chairs and sofas.There, looking nervous and upset, were all the members of her family.Her father and mother sat on a couch looking very pale.Her father had his arm around her mother, but they both jumped up when she came in.Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, and George also stood up and converged on her.Nobody said anything.

Ginny fidgeted slightly, looking from one drawn and sorrowful face to another, feeling more and more guilty.She hunched her shoulders and tried to think of something to say.

"Hi Gin," George said quietly, obviously taking it as his appointed role to break the silence.

"Hi," she said back."Hi Mum, hi Dad," she added, and a chorus of greetings from her brothers followed.Her parents stayed silent, simply looking at her.Then her mother abruptly turned away and burst into tears.

"No Mum, don't cry, please don't cry!I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Ginny babbled, rushing to her mother's side."I didn't mean to, please don't cry!"

"Of course you meant to!" Mrs. Weasley said between her sobs."You saved your brother's life…oh Ginny, I'm so _proud_ of you!"She began to sob even harder.Ginny helplessly patted her shoulder with an incorporeal hand.

"We've got a genuine heroine in the family," Fred said, and for once there was nothing of joking in the words."It doesn't matter if you're not quite what you used to be, we're still your family and we'll always look out for you."

"We love you, little sister," Bill said with a lopsided smile."Don't think for a minute that we'll abandon you just because you can't come home for the holidays."

And then it was Ginny who was crying, for things lost and things gained, and for the knowledge that she had died for her family and found it worthwhile.They gathered around her and filled her with love and reassurances and comforting support.Dumbledore had quietly left earlier but once they had calmed down, he reentered the room with an odd look upon his face.

"Ginny, I have a rather strange proposition for you.Sir Nicholas has, it seems, found a position more to his liking than Gryffindor house ghost and left us with hardly any notice.It seems fitting…would _you_ like to take over his position?"

Ginny gaped at him._Her_ as Gryffindor house ghost?

"_Me_?" Ginny squeaked."I—I can't…"How could she be the Gryffindor ghost if she was going to be resurrected?But…if she wasn't…then she would be spared Liandra's anguish of having not purpose.But how could she convincingly refuse at all?It wasn't like she could say she had too many things to do…Ginny's head began to spin.

~*~

Harry yawned as he stumbled down the stairs from the dorm.He'd slept long and well that night, but still felt groggy and tired.His first sight when he entered the common room made him believe that he was still dreaming.

There by the fire, the winged ghost who had defended his sword floated, staring at the closed portrait hole with a wistful and vulnerable expression.She looked very uncomfortable and out of place.Harry stepped out into the room and she whirled to face him, her eyes wide with fear and surprise.

"Hello," he said with a smile."We meet again."

"Hi," she said very softly, silvery eyes widening even more.

"Waiting for someone?" Harry asked casually, his gaze flickering toward the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Well…yes, kind of," the ghost replied reticently.

"It's nice to see you out of that room," Harry said, trying to set her more at ease, as she seemed ready to take flight and disappear at any second.His only reply was a shy nod of thanks.Harry repressed the urge to sigh.There didn't seem to be anything he could do to relieve her bashfulness.But maybe someone else could…

"D'you know Ginny?" he asked with artful innocence."I need to find her and I was wondering if you'd seen her."He was hoping that she at least knew _of_ her, even if it wasn't likely that she knew Ginny personally.Ginny would be superb company for the shy little girl, with her sympathetic and generous personality.

"Oh, yes!" the ghost surprised him by exclaiming."I know Ginny.She invited me back here to meet some of her living friends, but then she had to leave.She was summoned by the Headmaster to his office to meet some visitors.I'm sorry, Sword-Bearer, but I don't know where that is or when she'll be back," she concluded respectfully.

Harry had to work not to gape at her.Everything she'd said had been unexpected.Ginny had gone to see _Dumbledore_ who had visitors for her…the visitors were probably her family.Now that he thought about it, it was obvious.But as for the rest…

"_What_ did you call me?" Harry asked.

"Sword-Bearer," the girl replied promptly."That's what you are, unless you have a twin in the school…?" she asked delicately.

"No," he shook his head, "No twin."

"Then you are the bearer of the Spirit Blade and are a Sword-Bearer," she said reasonably."I didn't say anything wrong!" she jutted out her chin stubbornly and he held up his hands in surrender.

"You obviously know more about this sword stuff than I do, so I'll leave it to your expertise to decide what to call me," he teased."So Ginny just abandoned you here, did she?That was inexcusable rude of her, even if she was called away, so I'll just have to invite you to come down to breakfast with me.It's likely to be quiet in the dining hall this early in the morning, so there won't be many students to gawk at you.Though there will be some," he cautioned."If you don't want anyone to see you, then…"

"No, that's alright," she said, smiling at him."I'll be glad to have someone to talk to."

They made their way down to the dining hall, chatting idly, and then Harry served himself, while the winged girl watched with interest.

"It's been so long since I saw anyone eat," she explained."It's been so long since I've seen _food_, even!"

Harry laughed with her, enjoying the unique perceptions of an isolated ghost.

"Well," he said after a while, "you get to call me Sword-Bearer, but I still don't know what to call _you_."

"My name is Liandra," she said after a slight pause."Liandra Trevoy."

"And my real name is Harry," Harry said."Harry Potter."

"I know," Liandra said with a shy smile."Ginny told me all about you."

Harry grinned and blushed.He had a hard time thinking about Ginny discussing him with another girl, even if both of them were ghosts.One of them wouldn't remain that way for long if he had anything to do about it…His thoughts took on a grimmer note.

Just as Harry was finishing his bacon, Ginny sailed through the opposite wall and headed straight for them.She looked very excited and he could somehow tell that she had been crying.She came to a halt in front of them with a wide smile on her face, however, and greeted them both warmly.She shot Harry a small, private smile, which her returned with a full heart, and then she turned to Liandra.

"I think I may have found you a position to relieve that uselessness you were feeling," Ginny said directly."Dumbledore wanted me to take it, but…it wouldn't work, for obvious reasons," Ginny's gaze flickered to Harry and then back to Liandra, "so I suggested you.He'll want to interview you of course and then decide whether you'll suit.That is, if you want the job in the first place," Ginny finished in a rush.

"Maybe if you told me what the job _was_?" Liandra said gently, a smile tugging at her lips for Ginny's enthusiasm.

"Oh, yes, of course.I'm sorry, I'm just so flustered," Ginny apologized quickly."Liandra, how would you like to be the new Gryffindor ghost?"

Liandra gasped while Harry grinned widely.

"So I guess Nick got into the Headless Hunt finally?" Harry interjected.

"That's where he went?Dumbledore didn't say.But how did he get in with his head still partially on?" Ginny asked.

"I gave him a bit of help in severing it completely with that sword I found.He's helped us out so many times that when he asked, it seemed like a good way to repay him."Harry grinned as Ginny laughed exuberantly and Liandra smiled tentatively, not completely sure of the joke but willing to share in it anyway.

"So what do you say, Liandra?" Harry said after a moment."I think you'd make a wonderful Gryffindor Ghost.You're certainly better looking than the others and you beat the Bloody Baron hands down."Ginny added her own encouragement and soon the two ghosts were flying off toward Dumbledore's office, leaving Harry to finish his meal in solitude and wait for the rest of the students to trickle down to breakfast.

~*~

Ginny watched Dumbledore's expression carefully as she led Liandra into the office, but it was carefully neutral and revealed nothing.He looked Liandra up and down measuringly and the small ghost seemed to take offense. She drew herself up to her full height instead of shrinking under the scrutiny and looked the Headmaster directly in the eye.A slight smile curved his mouth and he nodded approvingly.

"Well, Miss Weasley, she may well do.Yes, she may do very well indeed.If you'll excuse us for a moment, I'd like to talk to Miss Trevoy in private for a moment."Ginny left the room after giving a last smile of encouragement to Liandra, who had shrunk back into herself at the approval.

Ginny whiled away the time by watching the corridor outside Dumbledore's office from inside a suit of armor.She'd picked up a lot of good gossip by the time Liandra appeared, smiling radiantly.

"It's all set up!" she said excitedly the moment she saw Ginny."I'm Gryffindor's new ghost and Dumbledore's going to announce my promotion tonight at dinner!"

"That's wonderful!" Ginny congratulated her friend, silently congratulating herself on finding a way out of becoming Gryffindor's ghost while not arousing any suspicion.And she had still managed to do a good turn by someone who surely deserved it."Why don't we go find Harry and tell him?I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear your good news."

Liandra nodded her agreement, and Ginny couldn't help noticing that she no longer seemed as shy or as defensive.She had found her place, and now instead of guarding a sword at the behest of something she hated, she could guard the students of Gryffindor by her own free and very formidable will.Ginny smiled.Gryffindor, she realized, had just gotten very lucky.

~*~

A/N: Um, I think I got that finished in record time.Of course.I finish it while I still don't have internet and can't post it…but I probably wouldn't post today anyway.After all, the 10th chapter just got posted this afternoon.So I'll wait a bit.And I should have my internet back by tomorrow.Or…well, probably to anyone reading this, it'd be today.

Veldan: Glad ya liked it and thanks for trying to post Chapter 10, even if it didn't work…

Cariel: Ack, sorry about the foul-up.It's up now, as you can see, but only through a lot of effort and frustration on my part and on the part of my friends.

Bessorla: Well, well.Yeah, I checked my email, and I'll be getting back to you right when I figure something out.It's quite a tough situation you've got there…

And a special thanks to Mike, who was the only one able to post entire chapters…everyone else just was able to post author's notes…the rest of the chapter got cut off.And another very special thanks to Mike for putting up with my temper tantrum when I still couldn't get it to post after about an hour of trying…


	12. Complications

A/N: This is a landmark chapter!  It's the first one to be entirely handwritten in school.  Fascinating, huh?  I wrote it all in my awesome little black book that my friend gave me last year.  I know that none of you really care…but I do.  So there. :-P  Enjoy.

Chapter 12 ~ Complications

            Ginny joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the Gryffindor table for dinner that evening, stoically ignoring the odd glances she continually received from her former peers.  Before the food appeared, Professor Dumbledore rose from his place among the teachers, his eyes twinkling with high good humor.

            "My good friends, I have both sad and happy news for you tonight.  So let us hear the sad so that we might move on to being happy!" He beamed about as scattered applause greeted his words.

            "Our four Hogwarts house ghosts have been with us for time out of memory, but one of them has seen fit to leave us.  Nearly Headless Nick has, at long last, been accepted to the Headless Hunt," Dumbledore bestowed a small smile on Harry as he said this and the four friends dissolved in laughter.

            "...Now Gryffindor is in need of a new house representative," Ginny steadfastly ignored the knowing looks she received.  "The new ghost is one which _none_ of you have ever met," Dumbledore sent a warning glance at the three living Gryffindors, "and so I must introduce her to you all now.  It gives me great pleasure to present Gryffindor's 'angel,' Miss Liandra Trevoy!"

            Heads all over the huge room turned upward as Liandra swooped through the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall.  There were exclamations of delight as her silvery wings beat the air.  She came to rest beside Dumbledore and he shot an amused smile at her before continuing.  

            "Dost thou, Liandra Trevoy, swear, by binding oath, that thou shalt protect and assist the students of Gryffindor with any and all of thy powers?"

            "I do so solemnly and bindingly swear," Liandra said firmly.  "I would give my life, were it within my power to give."  As she said this, she looked Ginny squarely in the eyes, making it clear that she felt she owed Ginny a great debt.  Ginny smiled at Liandra, trying to convey without words that there was no debt, but the other girl didn't seem convinced.

~*~

            The evening passed in a blur of celebration as Ginny showed Liandra around, introducing her to the students of Gryffindor House.  They were all eager to meet her and Ginny eventually left Liandra in the midst of a group of admiring second years and sought Harry out.  She found him, along with Ron and Hermione, working on a transfiguration essay in a corner of the common room.  Peering over his shoulder, Ginny spied the title, "Transforming Giraffes to Umbrella Stands and Vice Versa."  Ron and Hermione sat very close together on a couch, apparently working upon the same essay between fits of giggling and whispers.  Ginny noticed that both of their essays were significantly shorter than Harry's, and then smiled as Hermione whispered something to Ron.  He grabbed her hand, quickly removing the quill from her grasp, and brought the hand to his lips.  Hermione smiled radiantly until she realized that her homework wasn't getting done and attempted to take her hand back.  Ron held on, laughing, until she managed to extricate her hand.  Then a similar battle took place over Hermione's quill.  By the time Hermione managed to get a hold of her quill, she was lying halfway across Ron's lap.  Harry and Ginny exchanged a sardonic glance.  Ron wasn't as clueless as he sometimes seemed.

            "If I can distract you two lovebirds for just a second, I'd like to remind you that we're supposed to meet a certain someone tonight," Ginny said softly.  Suddenly she had the undivided attention of everyone within their group.  A cloud of silence descended on the corner, making the rest of the room seem abnormally loud.

            "I had actually forgotten.  I'm so sorry, Ginny," Hermione said, looking appalled.  Ginny smiled ruefully.

            "It's ok, Hermione.  You've got a lot on your mind lately," Ginny glanced at Ron.  "Keeping her on her toes, are you, big brother?"

            "My goal in life," he replied and then dodged as Hermione mimed a blow at him.

            "Well, the fact remains that our meeting is tonight," Harry said, and the lack of surprise on his face indicated that _he_, at least, had not forgotten.  "Hopefully, our contact will have some more information for us and we can get moving on this."  His impatience fairly radiated from him and Ginny's eagerness even surpassed it.  To live again…to feel the ground beneath her feet and wind on her face…it seemed a dream of unsurpassed loveliness.  Better still, she would be able to feel Harry's arms around her.

            "He better have found something good," she said, hope and belligerence mixed in her voice.

            "Yes," Ron agreed in a growl.  He obviously still didn't want to cooperate with their old enemy.

            "It's only until we've got Ginny back," Hermione said soothingly.  "Then we can drop him like an old shoe."

            "Drop him in the lake, more like," Ron muttered darkly.  "Him and his father both."

            "Ron, he's really not as bad as you think," Ginny said suddenly.  "Draco, I mean, not his father," she clarified with a shudder.

            Ron and Hermione stared at her with wide eyes and open mouths, but Harry looked at her with a strange kind of understanding.

            "How can you _say_ that?" Ron burst out.  "After all the things he's said about us?"

            "Y'know, Ron, maybe we should give him another chance.  He _is_ helping us," Harry pointed out.  Now Ron and Hermione's incredulous looks were directed at Harry.

            "You can say that after all the things he's said about you?  After all the time's he's called 'Mione a mudblood?" Ron said, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

            "And all the insulting things he's said about the Weasleys?" Hermione added.

            "Everybody deserves a second chance," Ginny replied weakly, her conviction seeming a bit silly in the light of the opposition of her brother and best friend.

            "Everybody does," Harry agreed firmly.  Ginny felt her resolve strengthening.  "We've never really known him.  Of course, he never gave us a real chance to know him, but now he is and we should take it."

            "_Why_?" Ron asked, revulsion in his voice.  "Why would we want to know _him_?"

            "He'll surprise you," Ginny said confidently.  "But if you're too closed-minded to give someone a second chance, then at least keep your _mouth_ closed and don't alienate him from our cause.  Agreed?" she asked, looking between Ron and Hermione, who both wore rebellious scowls.

            "Fine," Ron finally said grudgingly and Hermione nodded her agreement a moment after.  "We'll be civil to the twit."  Harry and Ginny exchanged wry glances.

            "I say that you and I should be the ones to do all the talking tonight," Ginny said inan ironic undertone to Harry.  He stifled a snort of laughter as the other two glared.  Then all four of them dissolved in merriment and all quarrels were mended.

~*~

            That night, a breeze drifted through the halls of Hogwarts, wafting from Gryffindor tower down into the deepest dungeon and into the lair of the Slytherins.  Waiting in the Slytherin common room was Draco Malfoy, a strangely enigmatic look upon his face.  His calm façade cracked as soon as the four Gryffindors appeared.  

            "Sit down," he said abruptly.  As they moved to obey, Harry noticed that Draco's garments were much less ostentatious than before.  He wore only his black school robes over a black turtleneck and pants and had no jewelry.

            "Got anything new for us?" Harry inquired.  He was aching to know any information which would speed the day of Ginny's resurrection.  

            "We've got more problems than even I thought," Draco replied.  "Lucius's protections go beyond what I had known.  Even if you can kill the demon bodyguards, you won't be able to touch a hair on his head."

            Harry growled in frustration.  "Why?  What spell is he using?"  Harry knew he looked murderous at this development and tried to moderate his expression so that Draco would not think it was directed at him.  Ron didn't bother, and Draco quailed when he caught Ron's gaze.  

            "It's some sort of mirror spell," Draco said hurriedly.  "It reflects any spell intended to Lucius back on the caster.  So if you tried to Avada Kedavra him, all you'd accomplish would be to kill yourself."

            "As if _we'd_ try that in the first place!" Ron said harshly, his face red with anger.  Hermione had her lips pressed tightly together, as if to hold in all the words she couldn't say.

            "I – I was just using it as an example," Draco stammered.  "That's what the spell is there to protect from, you see?"  He seemed shocked by their show of hostility after Harry's careful neutrality.  Then, in an abrupt shift of mood, Draco  became angry.

            "Listen, I'm not in this to insult you or get back at you or do _anything_ to you.  I really don't give a damn about you!  I'm just doing this to get back at Lucius and none of you have anything to do with it!  So stop being so bloody sensitive," he finished obnoxiously, glaring at Ron and Hermione, making it clear that every word was meant for them.  They both simply stared at him, surprised, but the expressions of hostility had gone from their faces.  That seemed to satisfy Draco, for her turned back to Harry.

            "I don't know how you're going to get past the mirror spell," he said frankly.  "It even affects physical attacks, causing weapons to bounce off in a mirror image of the attack.  You could skewer yourself if you're not careful."

            "Ron muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "I'll skewer _you_ if you're not careful."  Draco's head swiveled to glare at him with fiery anger and Harry elbowed Ron in the side to remind him of his promise.  But Ron wasn't paying attention to Harry.  His gaze was riveted to Draco's.  Ron's eyes widened at that stare and he sank back in his seat as if shocked and cowed by the sheer power of Draco's anger.  Hermione looked at Ron in shock and bewilderment, but said nothing.  She was holding to the agreement of civility.

            "As I was saying," Draco said, irritation still clear in his voice, turning away from Ron to Harry.  But he was interrupted again by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.  All of them froze, as if that would make them less visible.  Who would be walking around after midnight?

            That question was answered as Pansy Parkinson appeared on the stairs from the girls' dormitory.  She was dressed in a pink silk nightdress and a metallic silver bathrobe which was arranged to show off her very meager charms.

            "_Dra_co," she twittered, seeing him first.  "I _thought_ I heard your _darling_ voice!  _What_ are you doing up at this time of _night_?"  She fluttered her eyelashes at him…and then became very still as she noticed the other occupants of the common room.  "What, what are _you_ doing here?  Get _out_!  **Get _out_**!"

            Before her voice could rise to unprecedented heights of shrillness, Draco whipped out his wand and calmly said, "Petrificus Mentalis."  Pansy crumpled to the floor in a limp heap.

            "A modification of the body-bind curse," Draco said idly as they all looked at Pansy's inert form.  "It affects the mind rather than the body, locking it in stasis except for functions like breathing, which are left to continue as usual.  She'll wake up in time for breakfast."  He then pointed his wand at Pansy and murmured "Obliviate."

            Draco turned to Hermione and said, "Bring her up to her room and put her in bed.  It's up that stairway, sixth door, third bed on the left."

            "You seem very well acquainted with her sleeping arrangements," Ginny pointed out in amusement.

            "Every male in Slytherin knows where she sleeps.  She makes sure to tell each and every one of us – repeatedly, so that we won't forget.  How many of them actually follow her directions, I don't know, nor am I even remotely curious," Draco replied, looking down on Pansy with amused condescension and a tinge of disgust.  

            Hermione snorted with similar disgust and condescension, but with none of the amusement.  She gave the silver bathrobe a look which suggested that it might attack her, and then hauled the girl up the stairs and out of sight.  They waited in silence until Hermione returned.  Her nose was wrinkled in disdain.

            "Let's get on with this," was all she said.

            "As I was say8ing," Draco said again, exasperation clear in his voice, "the mirror spell requires careful consideration.  I, myself, have been thinking extensively on it, but haven't been able to come up with a solution."

            His candid admission of ignorance seemed to touch Hermione.  The stiff expression melted off of her face.  Harry realized that it must have been Draco's superior attitude which irked her so.  Hermione's competitive nature must have shouted at her to prove her superiority every time she saw the arrogant Slytherin.  

            "What about 'Finite Incantatem'?" Hermione asked Draco.  "Or am I correct in assuming that would also be reflected before it had a chance to work?"

            "That would also be reflected," Draco confirmed, now giving all of his attention to Hermione, as she was the one most likely to solve their dilemma.  

            "So casting a spell actually _on_ the mirror is impossible and casting a spell _through_ it is impossible…so that leaves casting a spell _around_ it," Hermione muttered, as if to herself.  Then she said to Draco, "How is this mirror spell cast, d'you know?  Can you teach it to me?"  Draco looked thoughtful.

            "I don't know the spell at the moment, but I think I know where I can find it.  If you come back tomorrow, I should be able to show you then."  He paused to think again.  "It'd probably be better if you came alone.  One student out of bed is less likely to cause a stir than three."

            Ron, predictably, exploded.  Hermione clapped a hand over his mouth, and, when it became clear that a mere hand wouldn't silence him, she kissed him firmly.  He shut up.

            Hermione turned calmly toward Draco as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  Harry and Draco were stifling chuckles while Ginny was full-out laughing.  Ron glared at his little sister, then slouched down in his seat to glare at Draco.

            "Of course I'll come.  It makes _perfect sense_," Hermione said, glaring at Ron on the emphasis.

            "Oh, grow up, Ron," Ginny said as he threatened to explode again.  "Hermione can take care of herself and has nothing to fear from Draco anyway.  But, regardless, I'll be with her, so you don't have to worry.  If the slightest thing goes wrong, I'll tell you, and you can charge down here to play Knight in Shining Armor.  Don't hold you're breath though," she finished, giggling.

            "Well, I think we've accomplished everything we can tonight.  I suggest we all get some rest." Harry said.

            "I second that motion," Draco said, propping his head up on one hand.  "I'm about to fall asleep as I sit."

            They all stood up and said their goodbyes.  Hermione promised to return the next night for her lesson on the mirror spell and Harry couldn't help noticing that she said farewell to Draco much more cordially than she'd said hello.

A/N: Until next time…I've already got the 13th chapter started, so with any luck it won't take too long to get it out.  Oops…I've noticed that whenever I promise a chapter will be out soon, I always have to put it off for some reason.  Ack, like the history essay I have to write for next week or the other homework I should be doing right now.  Oygh.  But it will be out eventually.  Promise.

Ah, yes, I'm sorry for the confusion with the tenth and eleventh chapters.  It was very complicated, very confusing, and I still have no idea what went wrong.  So if it happens again, I won't know how to fix it.  Again.  Joy of joys.  

Bessorla: Well, I'm glad I saved your life…so where's the next chapter, eh?  I'm looking forward to it.

Veldan: Don't worry, my friend, this one is going to be going on for a very long time, from the looks of it.  And to think, when I started it, all it was was a simple little romance…my baby's all grown up!  *sniff*  Well, at least teenaged.  Not quite grown up yet.  Hehehe….


	13. A Golden Mirror

A/N: I don't really have anything to say.  Enjoy the chapter.  Cheers.

Disclaimer: I just realized that I haven't done one of these in a really long time.  Oops.  I should warn you that all these wonderful characters are not mine.  Promise.

Chapter 13 ~ A Golden Mirror

            The next day passed in a blur for Ginny.  It seemed as if her consciousness was expanding and time was contracting.  The years she had spent on Earth seemed a paltry few in comparison with the long ages a ghost was likely to see.  A day was little more than an eye blink and a year a mere trifle.  She wouldn't age – wouldn't change – for millennia, and would probably see Hogwarts crumble to the ground when magic was a thing of the past and the power of witches and wizards mere superstition.  For all she knew, she might be there when the world crumbled and dissipated into the vastness of space, and all she would have left to haunt would be the black void.

            She drifted in an abstracted lassitude, watching the lives of her friends as they scuttled about in unseemly haste.  But they had only a measly parcel of years while she had eternity to contemplate the frailties of life.

            Resurrection…was it really so desirable?  She floated in the common room, watching the petty quarrels, the silly jokes, the transient loves.  Nothing was permanent except death; why should she give up the security of her existence for the tribulations of life?

            The sun moved through the sky and Ginny floated without movement, her body, such as there was of it, ensnared in thought.  As darkness fell, her brother came into the common room to sit near her.  Her abstracted gaze grazed over him, not really registering his presence as anything other than another fragmentary bit of life.

            "Hullo, Ginny," he said quietly.

            "Hello," she replied in a distracted voice.

            "How are you?" Ron asked.

            "Fine," she said, her mind disinterestedly supplying the accepted response to the useless question.

            "What have you been doing all day?" he asked curiously.

            "Nothing," she said.

            "You sound like Fred and George when I'm getting in the way of one of their experiments.  They're so touchy about letting people see half-finished jokes," he grinned.  "Hey, d'you remember when I walked in on them when we were younger – they were making fake toe mold – and they decided to try it out on me?  I had green toes for six months and I couldn't wear sandals all summer.  And then there was the time they forced you into those stiletto heels that were cursed so that you'd trip every other step.  Mum just about killed them when you almost fell down the stairs.  And then there was the time when…" Ron went on, obviously lost in his memories of a time when their family had been whole and happy.

            Ginny listened at first with boredom but then with growing interest.  It was as if she had been frozen and her brother's memories were poring over her in a torrent of warmth, thawing the ice inside her.  Ron's voice soothed her and she began to remember why she had wanted to live.  All the things she had scorned so recently – love, joy, the ever-changing touch of humanity – were gifts beyond price.  The numbness faded from her heart and she felt again the stabbing pain of her separation from her family her friends…from Harry.  She felt again the bitterness of a revelation come too late and the bittersweet joy of love at long last requited.  She welcomed the pain; it was an affirmation of her humanity, as a tingling limb affirms that it will once again be functional, with time and patience.  

            When Ron's reminiscences trailed off, Ginny spoke in a halting voice of her own childhood memories and Ron listened quietly, sharing them.  She spoke until the tears pouring down her face choked her, and she was forced to stop.  Her sobs were the only sound in the room save the crackling of the fire, and even that seemed to dampen itself in respect for her grief.  She cried for what she had lost, for what she had found too late, and for the utter relief of feeling herself once again a human being.  The remoteness of her earlier thoughts brought a shudder to her skin, as if she was bathing in ice.  Ginny focused on the present with a concentration which was almost fierce; she would not lose herself again.

            Ron sat quietly, looking at her with an expression of almost desperate sympathy.  His hands twined in his lap as if he couldn't quite figure out to do with them and he shifted uncomfortably.  Ginny pulled herself together and stopped crying, if only to ease her brother's discomfort.  

            "Are – are you ok?" Ron asked hesitantly.  Ginny buried the pain resolutely and nodded.  

            "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, feeling proud that there was only a small tremor in her voice.  

            "Oh, well…ok.  Um, Hermione's supposed to go meet Malfoy soon.  Are you still feeling up to going with her?" Ron's expression indicated that he really hoped that she was still going or he might have to tie Hermione up and forbid her to go.  Ginny almost giggled but the depression still weighed her down too much for any levity.  

            "Of course, Ron.  I'm not going to let Hermione walk into the lion's den unprotected.  Or the serpent's lair, if you prefer.  Don't worry, she'll be fine.  What, do you think Draco's going to molest her or something?" Ginny said with heavy irony.  When Ron's expression said that that was _exactly_ what he expected, Ginny growled in exasperation.  

            "Nothing is going to happen to her, Ron.  Trust me, ok?  I know what I'm talking about."

            "Since when did you get to be such an expert on Malfoy, eh?" Ron asked, but with less accusation than curiosity.

            "You could say that I've gotten inside his head recently," Ginny smirked and then flitted away through the wall, leaving Ron agape in her wake.

~*~

            Ginny found Hermione in the library, just as she had expected.  Harry was there as well, doing homework with half of his mind.  Ginny didn't know where the other half was, but it definitely wasn't in the library.  No one with a full mind would be dipping the wrong end of the quill in the inkbottle without noticing and then trying to write with the dry tip.

            Ginny waved to Hermione and then floated up to the distracted boy.  

            "You might want to try dipping the _tip_ in the ink, dear," she whispered into his ear, and he jumped.  

            "Oh, hello, Ginny," he said quickly, then looked at his quill and blushed.  She giggled fondly and brushed an insubstantial kiss onto his cheek.  He smiled embarrassedly at her and then carefully dipped the correct end of the quill into the ink and rewrote the last line of his homework.  When he glanced back up at her, she winked saucily at him, determined not to let him know how upset she was at the moment.  

            "Are you ready to leave for our little rendezvous?" Ginny asked, turning to Hermione.

            "As ready as I'm ever likely to be," the older girl replied, closing her Ancient Runes book with a snap.

            "Come find me when you get back," Harry said to Ginny with a smile and a wink of his own.

            "Ok," Ginny agreed happily.  She'd never pass up time with Harry.

            Ginny and Hermione left the library, Hermione walking with her arms carefully crossed in front of her, as if she was cold.  When they were out of sight of Madam Pince, Hermione extracted the invisibility cloak which she had had concealed beneath her robes.  Once she had disappeared beneath it, Ginny led the way to the Slytherin common room where Draco was again waiting for them.

            Draco nodded curtly to Ginny and then again to Hermione as she appeared from underneath the cloak.  He wasted no time on formalities but instead got right to the point.

            "I know how to cast the spell now.  It may seem rather complicated at first, but really it's quite simple --" Draco said and launched into an explanation peppered with obscure terms such as _antimagical vectors_ and _irrational counterreflective charms_.  Ginny was completely lost and she was very glad that _she_ was not the one who had to understand this.  She left it with relief in Hermione's capable hands and, after the first five minutes, ceased to even listen.  

            Her mind drifted back to the events of earlier and the black depression descended upon her again.  What was wrong with her that she had, for that little while, not wanted to live again?  This was the second time she had come close to losing her grip on reality…what was wrong with her?  And, more importantly, how long would it be before she was lost irrevocably and there was no one there to bring her back?  She sighed forlornly, attracting no notice whatsoever from the two others, who were so deeply embroiled in their technical discussion that Ginny doubted a herd of wild elephants could have disturbed them.

            Ginny drifted in her dark thoughts until Hermione turned to her, the light of comprehension on her face.  

            "All right, I know how to cast the spell now," she said proudly.  

            "Do you know how to get around it?" Ginny said, sounding somewhat surlier than she had intended to.

            "Well…no," Hermione said with a strange look at Ginny.  "Are you alright, Ginny?  You look pale."

            Ginny burst out laughing, much to Hermione's consternation.

            "What's so funny?" Hermione said crossly.

            "Think about it.  You just told a _ghost_ that she looks _pale_…" Ginny started giggling again, but there was a tinge of hysteria in it.  Hermione's mouth opened in an 'O' and then quirked unwillingly into a smile.  

            "So, seriously, d'you have any ideas on getting past that mirror spell?" Ginny said, seeing that she'd distracted Hermione from her question.  She really didn't want to lie to her friend and say that she was fine.  It was better to not answer at all.  

            Hermione immediately launched into a complicated explanation which Ginny halted with a frantic waving of her hands.

           "Hermione, I know you're brilliant, but that's just _way_ over my head.  Dumb it down a little, ok?"  

           Hermione sighed with a long-suffering expression and said, "Ok, ok.  I think you're just being lazy and you could understand if you really tried…" Ginny glared at her and she backed off.  "Well, I don't know if it's going to work yet and I'll have to test it out on someone before I know, so I don't really know if I should say anything about it…" Ginny glared again.  "Well, ok, if you insist.  I think that a spell of sufficient strength should be able to shatter the spell just like a mirror shatters if you hit it too hard.  The only problem is getting a spell that powerful, because, as far as I know, nothing like that exists."

            "Well, then what use is it to us?" Ginny said, turning away in angry frustration.  

            "A lot of use," Hermione said soothingly.  "Ginny, are you sure you're ok?  You're being so strange tonight."

            "When am I not strange?  I'm a Weasley," Ginny replied, turning around with an ironic quirk of her lips.

            "You," Hermione said accusingly, "are dodging the question."

            "Yes," Ginny said unabashedly.  "Please, tell my why something we can't do is of a lot of use to us."

            "Because we can use it.  You just jumped to the conclusion that we couldn't and that's not like you," Hermione said, with a look that promised a heart-to-heart when they were alone.

            "Stop pestering her, Granger," Draco said suddenly.  "Sometimes people don't want to tell their secrets to all and sundry."

           Hermione glared at him but Ginny sent him a look of gratitude.  The help was appreciated, even if he might have said it in a slightly nicer way.  Draco sent her a small smile once Hermione's attention was back on Ginny and she returned it with a slightly lighter heart.  Maybe she was doing some good and Draco would mend his ways, at least a little…

           She turned her attention back to Hermione's explanation which seemed ready to turn into a lecture at any moment.  "Since the spell is acting like a magical mirror," Hermione prattled on, "it seems that it would have the same characteristic of magnification as a regular mirror, as well.  Thus, any spell cast on it is slightly stronger once it has been reflected.  This should allow us to create a spell strong enough to break through the spell itself.  The only problem is finding a way to 'catch' the reflected spell in order to send it back at the mirror to be reflected again."  Hermione turned back to Draco and asked, "D'you have any more ideas on that?"

           He shook his head slowly.  "It seems to me that any person trying to catch and hold a spell that powerful might get burned to ash before they had a chance to send it back.  It's not a power that I'd care to play with."

           Ginny sighed in dejected surety.  This plan wasn't going to work.  She might as well give up and go back to her abstracted consideration of the stupidity of life.  At least she hadn't been hurting then.

            "There has to be some way to do it," Hermione said frantically, noting Ginny's despairing expression.  

            "I've got an idea that's just in the back of my brain and it refuses to come out," Draco said, his voice thick with frustration.  

            "Let's outline what we have so far," Hermione said logically.  "Then maybe we can come up with a solution."  Draco nodded his agreement while Ginny just looked at Hermione, her eyes dark with unhappiness.

            "First, the mirror spell both reflects and intensifies spells," Hermione said.

            "That's still only conjecture," Draco added warningly.  Hermione ignored him.

            "Second, a spell of great enough power will shatter it," Hermione continued as if he hadn't spoken.

            "That is also unproved," Draco interrupted.  Hermione glared at him and then shot a glance at Ginny.  He followed her gaze and seemed to get the point, though Ginny didn't.  She roused from her apathy just enough to send bewildered glances at both of them.  

            "Third, we need a way to reflect the spell back into the mirror without incinerating ourselves," Hermione concluded heavily.

            "Why don't you just put another mirror spell around the first?" Ginny asked innocently.  Both Hermione and Draco gaped at her.

            "Ginny," Hermione said slowly, "that's brilliant."

            "The spell gets magnified twice as fast without any of us having to get near it," Draco said with something like awe in his voice.

            "And we'll be protected from it because of our mirror spell which will contain anything the broken mirror does," Hermione concluded, looking at Ginny with new respect.  "I'm certainly glad you came along, Ginny!  We could have been up half the night trying to figure out how to safely handle that much magic when we don't have to!"  Her grin of triumph was infectious and Ginny felt a smile tugging on her lips in response.  

           But even better than Hermione's smile was the knowledge that she had contributed something vital.  Innocent and un-thought-out as the question had been, it had moved the effort forward.  She might be dead, but she was not useless.  A larger smile spread across her face and the three of them stood in a circle, sharing in the feeling of triumph.

            "We should test it out," Draco said, remaining the voice of caution even in their accomplishment.  "We won't really know for sure until we do, and we don't want to find out it doesn't work when we try it on Lucius."  The two girls nodded their agreement and he went on, "I volunteer to pretend I'm Lucius and you can cast the spell, Granger, since we all know you're the best," he concluded with a mocking bow that seemed almost half-serious.  Hermione have him a funny look but didn't protest either the volunteering or the compliment.  Draco walked to the center of the room and spun what looked like a shimmering golden egg around himself.  It contracted around him until it coated his entire body and then vanished with a pop.

            "Alright," he said, "go ahead.  I'm ready."

            "Wait!" Ginny said just before Hermione cast her spells.  "What if it makes noise when it shatters?  We don't want people running down and finding out what we're doing."

           Hermione smiled ruefully.  "Right again.  What would we do without you, Ginny?"  With a quick flick of her wand, Hermione cast a silencing charm on the room's walls and then turned back to Draco with a look of fierce determination on her face.  Ginny smiled; if she were the spell, she would break just to avoid Hermione's wrath.

            "Finite Incantatem!" Hermione yelled and then another golden globe didn't so much spin itself from her wand as appear in a whirlwind and snap into place.  This one retained a shimmer of gold so that it's location easily discernable.

           The air between the two spells roiled and miniature thunderstorms grew, shot lightening at the ground, and then dissipated in seconds.  Strange blue and violet mists coiled along the ground and little winged demons and angels fought pitched battles in the air.  Then an explosion of golden light momentarily obscured Draco from sight.  Both Ginny and Hermione held their breath, hoping that he hadn't been hurt, and their ears, for the explosion created an awful din reminiscent of one hundred tubas badly out of tune.  The golden light separated into separate golden snowflakes and drifted to the ground, disappearing when it touched the floor, or possibly simply passing though it into the nether regions of the earth.  

           Inside the shimmering golden globe of Hermione's mirror, Draco lay unmoving on the carpet.  With a cry, Hermione dispelled the globe and rushed to him.  Just as she reached his side, his silver eyes popped open and he creakingly eased himself up on one elbow.

            "Are you alright?  Draco?" Hermione said with obvious distress.  "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

            "No, I'm just a little rattled," he said, shaking his head to clear it and then wincing.  "Well," he said, looking from one girl to the other.  "I'd say it definitely worked."

~*~

A/N: Well, true to prediction, it took me longer than I thought to finish this.  Even as we speak (or as I write) I should really be working on either one of two essays due on Monday.  But why should I want to do that?   So thank you to all my reviewers.

Temporary Insanity: Wow, you sure had a lot of ideas on mirror spells!  If I hadn't already known what I was going to do with it, your suggestions would have been extremely helpful…as if is, I almost wish I hadn't know so that I could have used your suggestions.  Thanks!

Bessorla: I have a deal for you.  I agree to nag you and you can agree to nag me and we'll be even.  Eh?  Of course, I can't nag you right now 'cause you just updated but…hell, why not?  Hurry up and update!  Hehehe….

Veldan: Why on earth would I ever give them a break?  No one ever gives me a break, so it's only fair.  Right?  Have fun with Lackey but not with homework!

Mike: Thanks, dearest.  I'll take a blessing from you any time.  Though I do find it strange that you reviewed the 10th and 11th chapters and not the 12th when it was already posted….but that's ok.

Pseudonym Sylphmuse: Thanks for the inundation of reviews!  Wow.  Very cool.  And I can see a little explanation is in order here.  The author's note that was posted as ch 10 was a mistake…a computer glitch.  At the time, my internet was down, so I gave the chapter I had written to my friend so that she could post it on her computer.  I am the one and only, all-powerful author!  Lol.  But really, I'd never let anyone else tamper with my baby.  And Liandra has wings as a ghost because she had them when she was alive.  She's not human.  I guess I didn't make that very clear.  Oops.  Thanks again!

Slayerjenn: Thanks a lot, and I'm planning some more H/G scenes soon.

Silver Witch: I'm glad I wasn't the only one with posting problems too.  It had me in a dither for almost 2 days until I got it working.  Or, more accurately, my boyfriend got it working.  What is it with guys and machines?  I think there's an unwritten law that he can get anything to work that I can't.  Thanks for the review!


	14. Illusions of Life

Disclaimer: I have no claim on the illustrious characters of JK Rowling.  Hey, but I do own the mirror spell!  That's good enough got me.

A/N: Wow, I got a shock when I went to ff.net and discovered that all my original fiction was gone.  Good thing there was an explanation.  

Chapter 14 ~ Illusions of Life

            Harry sat in the library, awaiting Ginny's return and fighting off a fit of depression.  The snail's pace at which they were moving irked him.  He kept thinking that there had to be some way to speed things up, hurry events along, so that Ginny could live again.  The resurrection was needed to repay his debt of carelessness to Ginny, to give her back the life which had been stolen through his lack of foresight.  That night…why could he have just told her not to come?  Ron hadn't wanted her along…if he'd just agreed with Ron, Ginny would be alive and well.  Giving Ginny back her life would even the score…

            But there was no hiding the truth.  His reasons for wanting her alive were selfish…if love could ever be called selfish.  He needed he r with him, needed her warmth and ready laugh, her indomitable spirit and her mischievous grin.  He felt half-empty without her, as if the vitality of his soul had somehow been drained and the only thing keeping him going was the dim hope of regaining her life and his own fiery need for vengeance.  Without either of those…he would be lost.  The fire of his anger and need fueled his life and when they burned out, he would die.  Or he would pass into the spirit world so that he could be with Ginny.

            He sat there and stared blankly at his homework for what seemed like an eternity, attempting to empty his mind of its troubles and woes.   Harry scratched down a word or two whenever he noticed Madam Pince watching him but otherwise devoted his thoughts to Ginny.  After all, what was more interesting, Ginny or the Dragon Protection Act of 1273?

            Midnight came, and Madam Pince moved purposefully around the library extinguishing the magical lights with her wand.  When she approached Harry, she frowned and asked, "Still here , are you?  You should get some rest."

            "I've still got to finish this essay, Madam Pince.  I don't suppose you'd let me stay here a bit longer?  A library really is the _best_ place to concentrate on schoolwork," he added, thinking a bit of judicious flattery might be in order.  Indeed, the librarian's demeanor softened considerably.

            "It's so nice to see a young man interested in _work _for a change and not in coming to the library only to stare at a particular girl.  Of course you may stay.  I'll leave this one light on for you, but please turn it off before you leave."

            Harry nodded his agreement and she left without a backward glance.  He quickly gave up the pretense of working on his homework and began to fiddle with his wand under the table.  He wondered how much longer it would take Ginny to get here.  Hopefully she, Hermione, and Malfoy were making progress…and if they weren't, then Ginny needed to come find him _now_.  He was nearly sick with the anticipation of seeing her…of touching her…

            He saw her blue-white form swooping up through the floor halfway across the library, near the restricted section.  It was appropriate, he though, considering how often she herself was restricted from being with him…

            Under the table, Harry hurriedly aimed the wand at himself and murmured "Mortalus Spirium."  Immediately he felt an slackening inside, as if his soul was coming loose from his body.  He felt as if he might soar away at any moment…but he wasn't sure if that was the spell, or his elation at seeing Ginny and his anticipation of the time to come.

            By this time Ginny had floated over to him and was looking at him oddly.  

            "Hello, Harry," she said quietly, "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

            "Whoever said I wanted to talk?" he replied huskily, standing up to face her and carefully placing his wand on the table.  Her eyes widened in surprise.  

            "But Harry, what can we do except talk?  Was there somewhere you wanted to go?"

            "No, I think I'm rather happy right here," he said, and reached out to grasp her hands in his own.   The expression of delight on her face almost made him lightheaded.  To think that _he_ had put such an expression there was pure delirium.  He brought each of her hands to his lips and kissed them in turn, all the while keeping his eyes locked with hers.  She smiled gently and freed one hand to caress his cheek.  He turned his head to kiss the palm of her hand and then captured her hand again, placing feather light kisses all along the length of her arm, drawing her closer all the time.  Finally, she stood directly in front of him, her face no more than inches from his own.  He looked into her ice-blue eyes, remembering their former warm chocolate brown…somehow, he was loath to break that spell and for long minutes he simply looked at her, his emotions swinging from joy to sadness and back again too quickly for him to even realize what he was feeling.  Ginny looked back, her face unreadable, until, with deliberate slowness, she leaned forward to press her lips to his.  

            Harry slipped his hands around her waist and drew her to him, closing the remaining distance between them until her body was pressed firmly against his.  He returned her kiss, gently at first, but with growing passion.  Her lips were so soft as to put rose petals to shame and he tasted them as one who has tasted the ambrosia of the gods.  He moved to unbutton her robes without breaking the kiss and then slipped his hands underneath her shirt to caress the smooth skin of her waist.  She gasped into his mouth as his cold hands came into contact with her warm skin, but grasped his hands and kept them there when he would have removed them, murmuring, "They'll warm up," against his lips.  

            How long that kiss lasted, neither of them could have said.  Both of them were breathing heavily when they finally broke apart, and Harry could feel his heart pounding.  Never in his life had he wanted anything so much as he wanted her…

            Harry moved to the chair he had vacated upon his arrival and sat down, opening his arms in invitation.  Ginny smiled and floated over to rest on his lap, wrapping her slender arms around his neck.  She leaned forward to kiss the tip of his nose before Harry captured her lips again, resuming the kiss from before.   She returned it as wholeheartedly as he gave it, making his heart soar.  If this was love, it was worth every sacrifice it was in his power to make.  

            "How long does the spell last?" Ginny asked during one of their infrequent pauses for breath.  

            "Forever," Harry said.  "You're the most magical thing in the world."  He was rewarded by a sweet smile and a laugh.

            "You know what I meant, silly," Ginny said.

"Between 45 minutes to an hour," Harry replied regretfully.  According to the clock, it had already been half an hour.  Harry sighed.  It didn't seem fair that time flew just when he wanted it to crawl.

            "Why don't we go back to the dorm?" Ginny asked, giving him another one of her devastating smiles.  "I'm sure your bed is more comfortable than a wooden chair."

            "I'm sure it is," Harry agreed, smiling back mischievously.  

            "Then I'll be waiting for you," she said and flitted away through the ceiling.  Harry gathered together his things and made his way through the halls toward the Gryffindor common room.  He suspected that he had a silly grin plastered all over his face, but he didn't particularly care.  There was no on there to see him anyway…

            Just as he the staircase leading toward the common room, a voice rang out behind him.  

            "Potter!  What are you doing out of bed at this hour?  Detention!"  The black robed form of Professor Snape detached itself from the shadows and descended on Harry like an overgrown bat.  

            Harry carefully wiped the grin from his face before he turned around and replied solemnly, "I'm sorry, Professor Snape, but Madam Pince gave me permission to stay in the library to finish my schoolwork."  He fished his partially finished essay out of his pack and waved it in front of Snape's face, hoping Snape wouldn't be able to see it well enough to discern its half-finished status.  

            Snape grabbed the essay out of his hand with the speed of a striking viper.  "Well, well, Potter, so this is what you call working?  Not very impressive, I have to say.  Are you sure that you weren't spending your time snooping in the restricted section instead?"

            "Of course not, Professor.  And if I had been, wouldn't I have set off…an alarm of some sort?" Harry said, at the last minute remembering not to let Snape know that he had indeed triggered the alarms in the restricted section before and knew that the books screamed when opened.  

            Snape shot him a suspicious look, but had to concede the point.  "I don't trust your intentions, Potter.  You must have been snooping for something.  Your sort always is.  Your father certainly always was.  I'll check up on your story with Madam Pince tomorrow, but until then, consider yourself as having a detention with me two days from now, and twenty points will be removed from Gryffindor."  Snape swept away to continue his rounds, his robes swirling behind him like the wings of a giant bat.  Harry, still feeling ebullient from his rendezvous with Ginny, couldn't help but stick his tongue out at the retreating teacher's back.  

            "You've just lost another ten points for Gryffindor with that attitude, Potter," Professor Snape said without turning around, and then with a swish of his robes, he was gone.

            Harry continued on to Gryffindor tower, refusing to let the bitter teacher ruin his good mood.  Ginny was waiting for him, and the sour old bat had already wasted enough of his precious time.  By the time he reached the Fat Lady's portrait, his grin was restored.  Harry climbed the stairs to the boys' dorm with anticipation and slipped between the curtains of his bed to find Ginny waiting for him.  

            "Why don't you get into something more comfortable?" she asked, gesturing to the pajamas he'd carelessly stuffed under his pillow that morning.  He grabbed them and made an awkward sitting bow.

            "As my lady commands," he said, laughter in his voice, and Ginny giggled.  "I'll be right back."

            He made his way to the bathroom and quickly changed into a flannel shirt and pants.  He didn't usually wear the shirt, but since Ginny was there…

            It was when he crawled back into bed that he realized that he might as well have been naked.  Ginny's ghostly hands passed right through his clothes; only his actual body was solid for her.  He shuddered as her touch sent shivers up his spine and cupped a hand around the nape of her neck to draw her close for another kiss.  They were both filled with a desperate passion which said more clearly than words that they both knew their time was running out.  

            When they broke apart, they simply lay in each other's arms for a timeless moment.  Harry could feel his eyelids drooping; he was exhausted from the late night meetings they'd been having, as well as the stress of his days.  He fought sleep with all his will; he didn't want to leave Ginny, didn't want to waste their precious time together with sleep.

            "Harry, you're tired.  You need to sleep," Ginny whispered at that moment, breaking into his inner struggle.  

            "But—" he protested wearily.

            "No buts.  Sleep.  And in the morning, you can remember that you fell asleep in my arms," she said, smiling tenderly.

            "I can't think of anything more pleasant, except perhaps waking up in your arms," Harry said, trying not to sigh.

            "One day, if this works," Ginny said sadly.

            "One day," Harry echoed, and then relaxed into the comforting warmth of her arms, closing his eyes.  After several minutes, he heard Ginny's voice again, speaking softly.

"I love you, Harry Potter," Ginny said, her voice wistful.

"I love you too, Ginny," he whispered, his lips curving into a smile, before drifting into slumber as a feather drifts through still air.

~*~

            Ginny watched Harry sleeping, reveling in the feeling of having him in her arms.  It would be gone all too soon.  With gentle fingers, she traced the line of his jaw, memorizing the feel of his skin.  What a wonderful night, and to hear Harry say those words…she had thought him asleep, but she was fervently grateful that he hadn't been.  He loved her.  She repeated that over and over in her mind.  Harry loved her.

             A lock of hair fell into her eyes, and she pushed it absently behind her ear, continuing to stare at Harry.  But then she gasped in surprise and pulled it back before her eyes.  Her silvery hair was interspersed with streaks of brilliant crimson and the hand which held it had the creamy tint of life.  She almost looked more solid at that moment than Harry….

            With a shudder she realized that, indeed, Harry's hair was streaked with translucent silver and his skin had taken on an unnatural pallor.  She felt a fear grip her heart; there was no way that this could be a good thing.  Her mind heavy with concern, she brushed Harry's messy, black and silver hair back off his forehead and waited.  Ginny waited for the spell to wear off, for a sign that her beloved was all right, and for the time of her resurrection so that she might also fall asleep in the arms of the one she loved.

~*~

A/N: This chapter is for anyone who wanted a bit more H/G romance, and I must say, I had a good time writing it.  It took so long to get out because I need to be in a specific mood to write good romance, so I would just like to take a moment to thank my boyfriend for getting me in that mood.  I love you, my dear.  And thank you to all my reviewers!

Silver Witch: Wow, thank you so much!  That's a huge compliment.  I just hope I continue to be worthy of it.

Angelus:  Thanks for taking the time to check out my story and I'm glad you like it!

Bessorla: I'm sorry you found it confusing, but that was the way it's supposed to be.  It's another plot wrinkle.  You'll understand eventually, and if Ginny has any more of these sudden plunges into depression…it's planned like that.  Thanks for the input though.  And where's your next chapter, eh?  I'm going into "Cloak of Identity" withdrawal.  

Veldan: I know I already explained the answer to your question to you, but I'll type it up again just in case someone else had the same question.  The first reflect was never enough to break the mirror spell – when I was talking about catching the power and sending it back, I meant multiple times and not just once.  And once the power shattered Draco's mirror, the power had achieved its purpose, so it dissipated.  I hope that clears up any misunderstanding.  Oh, and thanks for reviewing!

Now here comes the difficult part: All my anonymous reviewers.  I'm sorry, but your names got wiped out at some point during the site's split.  I love you just the same, but I can't for the life of me remember which name goes with which review.  It sucks and I'm sorry.  But thank you!

One anonymous review (I think it was from Temporary Insanity, correct me if I'm wrong) mentioned that a mirror only intensifies power if it focuses a beam of light.  I was thinking more of the way mirrors increase the light in a room if you place them right.  If you place a mirror on an angle from a window and then direct the light to another mirror and so on and so forth, you can make that room pretty darn light with only the light coming from one window.  I think I came across that effect in a computer game actually…or maybe a book.  But regardless, it seems to me that it acts as a kind of multiplying effect by redirection.

Most people don't use the mirror spell because most people don't know about it.  And it's also a pretty high level spell.  Draco and Hermione can only manage it because they're pretty intelligent.

As far as using the mirror spell on Voldemort…thanks, you just gave me an idea.  I don't promise to use it, and it's nothing simple as just "taking him out"…but I won't say any more here and ruin the story.

Yes, it blocks Avada Kedavra.  As I said, it's not well known.  And besides, it's my story, and I say it does.  I don't usually take that privilege, but I'm taking it now.  The mirror spell blocks _everything_.  So there.  *sticks out tongue* Hehehe, sorry, I can be a tad childish sometimes.

The magic-eating thing…interesting.  Very interesting.

Thank you for taking the time to think of all that stuff.  Wow.  Thanks.

To my other anonymous reviewer: Thank you again!  And don't worry; I'm not in any danger of falling behind.  I'm rather a Hermione myself.


	15. Sleeping Arrangements

Disclaimer:  Yeah, I wish it was mine, but you know it's not.  You do know that, right?  'Cause if you don't, you really have no business being here.

A/N: Sorry about the long delay, to anyone who was waiting for this.  I'm on the verge of a breakdown right now.  Causes?  Too much work and not enough sleep.  Sleep?  What's that?  Anyway, I'm sure you don't care about my personal problems.  You just want to get to the story…right?  Well, here it is.

Chapter 15 ~ Sleeping Arrangements

            When Harry awoke the next morning, an empty bed met his bleary eyes.  Ginny was nowhere to be found.  He sighed with a strange mixture of elation and melancholy as he looked at the undisturbed blankets beside him.  Her insubstantial body had left no impression beside his own.  _'One day,' _he promised himself.  

            With a groan, he pulled himself out of the warm haven of his bed, his forehead crinkling against the light assailing his eyelids.  His stomach rumbled loudly enough to wake the rest of the school and he decided that filling it should definitely be the first priority of the day.

            Two of the crimson-draped beds stood rumpled and empty, but the third was still tightly curtained.  Glancing at the time, Harry decided that the occupant needed a wake-up call, or he would miss not only breakfast but likely his first class as well.  Harry knew Ron's sleeping pattern—continue until something interfered.  Harry smiled mischievously.  Fingernails could feel an awful lot like spider's legs when one was sleeping.  

            Harry showered and got dressed, just in case Ron, in a fit of pique, chased him all the way down to the dining hall.  He snickered at the thought of the school gawking at the famous Harry Potter being chased around the Great Hall by his best friend, both of them wearing pajamas.  

            He stood in front of Ron's bed, trying not to chuckle.  He'd have to apologize eventually, of course, but by then, Ron would hopefully have seen the humor of it and forgiven him anyway.  Harry slowly drew open the curtains so that he wouldn't disturb the sleeping occupant and stopped in shock.  Instead of one body sleeping inside, there were two.

            Hermione curled up next to Ron, her head resting on his chest and his arms around her.  They both continued to sleep, expressions of peace and contentment on their faces, oblivious to any observer.  Harry, after one incredulous stare, began to chuckle, then to laugh uproariously, clutching his sides.  He collapsed backward onto his own bed, still wheezing with laughter, as Ron and Hermione's eyes popped open.  

            Ron hurriedly sat up and Hermione scrambled out of bed, her eyes darting around to make sure there was no one else in the room.  All of their faces were red, but Ron and Hermione's were from embarrassment while Harry's was from laughter.  He couldn't seem to halt his merriment, and Ron looked as if he might hit Harry at any second.  Hermione just looked mortified.  She still wore her school robes from the day before and was hurriedly running her fingers through her unruly hair in an attempt to make it more presentable.  

            "There is such a thing as _privacy_, y'know," Ron said sullenly, then had to repeat himself more loudly in order to be heard over Harry's chortles.  

            "Well, considering that this is the _boy's dorm_, I wasn't really expecting to find Hermione in here.  In fact, I think it's safe to say that it's the _last_ thing I expected," Harry gasped.  "I guess I shouldn't ask you two how you slept last night--" Harry dissolved into laughter again, wondering idly why he was laughing so hard—and then remembered his own sleeping arrangements last night.

            "Harry Potter!" Hermione said severely.  "I know what you're thinking, and you can get your mind out of the gutter right now!  Ron and I didn't _sleep_ together, we just—_slept_ together..." Hermione's voice trailed off and then she sat down heavily on the bed, put her head in her hands, and began to laugh.

            "I see, so you _slept _together, but you didn't _sleep_ together," Harry said, an expression of wise understanding on his face.

            "Oh, you're impossible!  You know what I meant!" Hermione said through her giggles and Harry started chuckling again, while Ron simply watched them, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.  

            "You two have gone batty," he said, shaking his head.  

            "Absolutely," Harry replied.  "You should join us, it's great fun."  Ron just shook his head, grinning.

            "Was something wrong with your bed last night, Hermione?" Harry asked mischievously.  "Too cold, perhaps?"

            "It's not _my_ fault," Hermione said between giggles.  "I just came up to say goodnight and _that_ monster grabbed me and held me hostage."

            "I'm sure you fought very hard," Harry said sanctimoniously.  

            "Fought like a tigress, she did," Ron put in, and then grabbed Hermione and started tickling her mercilessly.  She squirmed away from him, breathless with laughter, her eyes sparkling.  "Of course," Ron continued, "you wouldn't know, now would you Harry?  You weren't even here last night.  Out after hours, tsk, tsk, tsk.  And if you'd been here you could have protected 'Mione from her _horrible_ kidnapping."

            "Oh, yes, I could have," Harry replied, smirking, "and then I could have gotten brained for my troubles.  Better, I think, that I wasn't here!"

            "Where were you, anyway?" Hermione put in curiously.

            "Oh, I was--" Harry thought back to the past evening.  What could he tell his friends about that?

            "Busy," Ginny supplied from behind him, having just floated up through the floor in company with Liandra.  "Very busy."  She floated over and brushed an insubstantial kiss across Harry's cheek.  Harry sighed; he could feel the warmth of her love if not the warmth of her body.  Their eyes locked for a timeless moment and Harry basked in Ginny's smile.

            "Hey, break it up, you two," Ron interjected, smirking.  "I'm about to be smothered in sweetness."

            "As if I couldn't say the same thing about you and Hermione," Harry shot back.  "All snuggled up and cozy in bed…"

            "_What_?!" Ginny exclaimed and then dissolved into helpless laughter.

            "What on earth is the matter with you two?" Ron asked in amazement as Harry again joined Ginny in merriment.  "I didn't think that we were _that_ funny," he muttered under his breath.  Harry made a frantic negating gesture while he tried to get his breath back.

            "That's not it; we're not laughing at _you_," Harry gasped.  

            "Well, it certainly looks that way," Hermione said, looking a bit peeved.

            "Not everything is as it appears," Ginny said solemnly and then dissolved into more giggles.  Hermione looked back and forth between the two of them, and then shook her head sadly.

            "You two are just _too_ much alike," she said despairingly.

            "Anyway," Ginny said, catching her breath and turning to Hermione, "I thought we should fill in the boys on what happened at the meeting last night.  I didn't get a chance to tell Harry and I have a strange feeling that you didn't tell Ron either."  Hermione blushed and shook her head.

            "I have a better suggestion," Harry put in.  "How about you fill us in later.  If we don't get to breakfast soon, we're going to miss it."

            "Heaven forbid!" Ron said fervently.  "I'm starving!"

            "You're always starving," Hermione said, poking his stomach with her forefinger.  It gurgled in response.  Ron shrugged, unremorseful.  

            "So let's go to breakfast," Ron said.

            "I don't know about you," Hermione said severely, "but _I'm_ going to clean up a bit."  Her tone implied that he had better follow her example.  He sighed as she flounced out of the room.

            "I'll meet you in the Great Hall, then?" Harry said.  It was less a question than a statement.  Ron sighed again.

            "I suppose she won't sit by me if I don't shower," he said resignedly.

            "Welcome to the world of girlfriends," Harry replied.

            "Hey!" Ginny exclaimed and punched Harry's shoulder.  Her fist went right through his shoulder, and he laughed.  She mock-glared at him for a moment before joining in.

            "See you there, Ron," Harry said as he exited the dorm in the company of the two ghosts.

            "So how are you liking your new position, Liandra?" Harry asked as they made their way down the hall.

            "It's, well…" she hesitated, biting her lip.

            "Boring?" Ginny supplied cheekily.  Liandra hunched her shoulders and nodded slightly.  "Yes, it seems like it might be.  I never saw Nick doing anything but randomly floating around.  Sure, he was always helpful when we needed it, but there were a lot of times when we didn't need help."

            "I feel cheated," Liandra confessed.  "Gryffindor is supposed to be the most daring of the Houses.  I guess I expected to be whisked up in some kind of grand adventure, especially with _him_ around." She gestured to Harry.  He grimaced.

            "Trouble does seem to follow me around, doesn't it?" he replied and she nodded with a wry smile.

            "Speaking of trouble," Ginny interjected, "one of these nights, you're going to have to give us an account of your own.  I'm about to die of curiosity.  For one thing, I've never even heard of an avian-humanoid race.  Where do you _come_ from?"

            Liandra laughed at her friend's eagerness.  "All part of the story—just let me know when you want to hear it, and I'll be glad to tell it.  It's the least I can do," she said with a sidelong glance at Ginny.  Harry surmised that Liandra still felt indebted to Ginny.  Ginny waived her hands dismissively, looking embarrassed.  

            "Sure, sure.  How about tonight in the Common Room?  Unless you don't want the whole school to know your history," Ginny amended.  Liandra shook her head.

            "It's really not anything cataclysmic and I wouldn't care if they knew, but you might not want to spread about my role in guarding the sword.  Then you'd have to explain to everyone what it is and it would get back to Voldemort and…"

            "And that would be extremely bad," Ginny finished for her when her voice trailed off.  Liandra, Harry noted, had no problem about calling the Dark Lord by name.  But then again, she hadn't been in any position to develop a fear of him.  Demons, on the other hand, she knew.  

            "Agreed," Harry put in.  "So how about tonight someplace else?  I don't know if I can wait any longer.  Curiosity killed the cat and all that, but I think lack of information is more likely to kill _me_," he said, and then sighed as two looks of blank incomprehension met his joke.  "Muggle saying."  He kept forgetting how little they knew.  He'd have to get Ginny to mingle with the muggles a little once she was alive again.  It would be an interesting experience for her.

            "Sure," Liandra said, still eyeing him oddly.  He shrugged and grinned, as if to say, "_I can't help my heritage," _and she smiled back.

            When they reached the Great Hall, Harry sat down and hurriedly began shoveling food into his mouth.  Ginny and Liandra looked at him, looked at each other, and laughed.  Harry rolled his eyes at them.  "I'm _hungry_," he mumbled through a mouthful of pancake.  

            "I've almost forgotten what it's like to eat," Ginny said sadly, her face undergoing an abrupt change of mood.  

            Liandra patted her on the shoulder comfortingly.  "Don't worry, you'll get to eat again.  And it could be worse.  You've only almost forgotten – I've forgotten completely.  Of course," Liandra continued, a smile quirking her lips, "since I've forgotten, I don't remember what I'm missing and I don't miss it anymore."  This brought a slight smile to Ginny's lips, and then a larger one as Harry nodded in agreement, his mouth full of strawberries.  There was whipped cream on his upper lip.  

            "'Ere um 'On an' Umiee," Harry said through his full mouth.  Liandra looked perplexed, her brow crinkling charmingly, but Ginny only laughed.  

            "He said, 'Here come Ron and Hermione,'" Ginny told her blank-faced friend.  

            "And you _understood_ that?  You two must really be meant for each other, because understanding that _had_ to take telepathy," Liandra said, only half joking.  

            "No," said Ginny negligently.  "Just looooong experience with six brothers.  I swear, there isn't a boy in the universe who knows how to eat his good at a reasonable rate.  And yes, Ron," she said to the brother standing behind her and chuckling, "I do know that I sound just like Mum."

            "You said it, I didn't," Ron said, taking his seat by moving forward through his little sister to the table.  Hermione rolled her eyes and went around the two ghosts.  

            "_Boys_," she muttered.  Ginny shot her a sympathetic look and a shrug to say that she really didn't care.  As long as she was insubstantial, people might as well take advantage of it…but Ron didn't know she felt like that.

            "_Ron_!" Ginny shrilled.  "How could you _do_ something like that!  That was _horrible_.  Don't you have any feelings at all?  Here I am, dead, and you think it's _funny_ to walk through me as if I wasn't there, but it isn't, not at all!  I _am_ here, even if I'm dead, and it'd be nice if you acknowledged that fact once in a while!"

            Ron looked stricken and waived his hands at her to stop her tirade.  He looked so guilty she was tempted to stop, but she was having too much fun.

            "What next?  Soon I'll be like Moaning Myrtle and you'll be making fun of me and I'll be reduced to crying in a girl's toilet just because my brother thinks it's _funny_ to walk through his _late_ sister without even a please or thank you!"

            Ron was starting to get red in the face – a sure sign that he was going to blow up soon.  She fell silent and stared at him, trying with all her considerable acting skills to look hurt.  His face got more red – and more red – and more red.  This was her favorite part of making him angry.  He ended up looking like a beet with a sunburn.

            "Why, you--" he began but he was interrupted by her laughter.  His mouth opened wide but no sound came out and he abruptly snapped it shut, turning back to his breakfast, beginning to eat in stony silence.

            "You should have seen your face," Ginny giggled.  "Bright red!  You looked like you'd been thrown into a vat of red paint.  You could have blended in with a rose bush.  Come on, you know it's funny…"  she prodded at him.  She saw the corner of his mouth quirk up even though he went on eating and refused to look at her.  "Red is _such_ a fitting color, too…the color of love…do you turn red around Hermione?" Ginny teased.  Ron glanced at Hermione and blushed, bathing his still red face in even more brilliant crimson.  "Well, I guess that answers _that_ question!" Ginny giggled.  Ron's lips twitched a little more  and he finally gave in and smiled.  

            "Wretch.  I don't know why I put up with you.  She delights in making me angry or embarrassed just so she can see the color of my face," he said to Harry and Hermione.  Ron shook his head hopelessly.  "She's been doing it since she was a week old, I swear."

            "And he falls for it every time," Ginny added, laughing.

            "Yeah, yeah.  But you're impossible."

            "Ahem," Hermione interjected.  "Can we talk business for a minute?  We're going to have to go to class soon and I want all of you to hear this.  We set up another meeting for tomorrow night so that we can discuss strategy."

            "Tomorrow night?  Rats!" Harry said.  After meeting Peter Pettigrew, that was the foulest curse he knew.

            "What's wrong with tomorrow?" Ginny asked worriedly.

            "I ran into Snape going back to the dorm last night and he wouldn't believe me when I told him I had permission from Madam Pince to stay in the library.  He gave me detention for tomorrow."

            "Well, you can get out of it, right?" Ron said anxiously.

            "I doubt it.  You know Snape.  Maybe I could if I went to Dumbledore, but…would I ordinarily make such a fuss over one detention?  We don't want him suspicious of anything."

            "Dumbledore finds out _everything_," Liandra said quietly.  "I'd bet he already knows what you're doing…whatever it is."  Harry realized that Liandra had not been let in on the plan, but yet they'd been talking about it in front of her as if she had been.  That had been negligent, but…on the other hand, she already knew that he was planning on resurrecting Ginny.  

            "You wanted excitement…why don't you go with them tomorrow night?  You can stand in my stead as the voice of reason," Harry said lightly.  

            "I _do_ want to know what's going on…" Liandra said.  

            "Consider this your first adventure as Gryffindor's ghost," Ginny said as Ron and Hermione nodded their agreement to the idea.

            "Alright, if that's all settled, then I suggest that we get to class.  If we wait much longer, we'll be late and we'll _all_ have detention tomorrow," Hermione said worriedly.

            "That'd make everything easier, though," Ron protested.  "Then we could just have the meeting during our detention!"

~*~

A/N: I know this took a long time to get out, but hey, it wasn't as long as my last break…I think that was somewhere between six months and a year.  I don't remember exactly anymore.  Anyway, expect long waits from now until the end of the school year.  Or at least until midway through May.  I _think_ the load should be lightening up around then.  That's not to say that I won't update this at all until May.  I'm just saying that it'll probably be several weeks between chapters and don't expect them to be extremely long.  I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.  I'm definitely sorry – I would much rather be writing this than an essay on Billy Budd or an essay on anything, for that matter.  Essay writing really isn't my thing.  But I'm rambling…I do that when I'm tired.  Anyway, if you want an email note whenever I update, since it's going to be so rare, send me an email saying so.  I'll be happy to do it.  Once again, sorry.  And thank you to all my reviewers!

Mei Queen: Thank you!  That means so much to me.  One of my original complaints against fanfiction was that I couldn't get inside another author's characters well enough to work with them.  I guess I've gotten over that, eh?  

Angelus: What a great review!  I've always though the most important thing about writing was to convey emotion.  Thank you.  Oh, and I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with your story.  I haven't even been on ff.net since the last time I posted.  I'll try to get to it soon!

DaBear: At the risk of giving away part of the plot, no.  That's not what's happening.  I understand that it's a bit confusing right now, but all will be revealed in time.  Wow, that sounded pompous.  But true.  Thanks for the review.

Enialedam:  Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

Silver Witch:  Thanks!  Wow, reading that made me feel so good.  And sometimes, I wish I knew what was going to happen too!

Zaz: Have no fear, the author's here!  Oh my, I can't believe I just wrote that.  Please forgive me.  I'm not usually given to bad poetry.  But no, I haven't abandoned this fic and I don't plan to, especially not when I'm getting all this support from my reviewers!  

Kaeros:  I'm sorry you're confused.  Sometimes I try to maintain an air of mystery and I take it too far.  I'm really curious though…where did you get the idea that I'd sacrificed Harry?  Heaven forbid!  I think I'd much rather have both of them alive.  It makes things much more interesting.  Please review again or email me or something so that I can avoid making the same mistake again.  And thank you for the review!

LizhowHP: I'm glad you luv this story!  As for the updating, see above if you haven't already read my author's note.  I'm sorry!  Very, very sorry!  I hope you'll keep reading anyway…

Storyweaver: Thanks!  Yes, he is in his sixth year and I probably won't write a prequel.  First of all, I have no idea what I'd put in it, and second of all…I've got my hands quite full with this story and my original over on fictionpress.net.  But this one will be going on for a rather long time, so don't worry about running out of wonderful H/G goodness!


	16. Conspiracy

Disclaimer: It's not mine.  Deal with it.  

A/N: I'm baaaaaaaaccckkk!  And going strong!

Chapter 16 ~ Conspiracy

            The day was, by all accounts, a very odd one.  The air practically crackled with tension and the teachers were jumping at any stray sounds.  Professor McGonagall released the class without assigning any homework and, even more unbelievably, Professor Snape let an entire class go by without taking any points from Gryffindor.  

            "Oh, by the way, Potter," Snape said as they were leaving, "I've verified that Madam Pince gave you permission to be in the library and your detention has been cancelled as well as the twenty points restored to Gryffindor."  Then he swept off distractedly, muttering to himself.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched him with mouths agape.

            "Something's up," said Ron quietly, and the other two nodded in agreement.

            As the trio exited the Potions dungeon, they found another trio of Slytherins lying in wait for them.

            "Well, Potter, lied your way out of another detention, did you?" Draco sneered at Harry.  "Or paid, maybe?  You won't have much gold left by the time you get out of Hogwarts at this rate."   He smirked condescendingly.

            "You shouldn't talk about buying things, Malfoy, considering how you got on the Quidditch team," Harry shot back, angry and hurt.  What was going on?

            "Huh, and he doesn't even bother to refute it," Malfoy said to Crabbe – or possibly Goyle – one was pretty much the same as the other.

            "The refutation goes without saying, Malfoy, since you know very well that you're lying."

            "I bet," said Malfoy, turning to Goyle – or Crabbe – "that he's not even man enough to challenge me to a wizard's duel.  After all," he smirked, "you didn't show up when I challenged you, did you, Potter?  Ran away and cowered in the safety of Gryffindor with your little coward friends."  Malfoy tossed his silver-blonde hair out of his eyes and looked down his nose at Harry.  Harry could feel his face turning red with anger.  What was Malfoy playing at?  

            Just then, one of Malfoy's eyes blinked in an unmistakable wink and Harry's insides settled back into their normal configuration instead of trying to tie themselves into knots.  It hadn't been pleasant to think that their ally might have betrayed them…

            "Huh, I wasn't the one who didn't show, Malfoy, that was all you.  In fact, you were the one who went and got a teacher so that we'd get in trouble for being out of bed, now wasn't it?  Fancy that," Harry said, his lips twisting wryly.  "Fine then, if you think you can keep your courage up, you're on."

            "Good," Draco said, his eyes narrowing in satisfaction.  "Tonight then.  In the Trophy Room."  And he swirled off in a younger imitation of Snape.

            The three Gryffindors turned away as well and made their way to their next class.  As soon as they were out of earshot of anyone else, Ron muttered, "And _what _was that about?"

            "Draco wants to meet us tonight in the Trophy Room instead of tomorrow.  I'm guessing something important has come up," Harry replied grimly.  "I just hope its not some new insurmountable obstacle.  We've already dealt with too many of those as it is."

~*~

            The halls of Hogwarts were echoingly empty as Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to the trophy room huddled beneath the invisibility cloak.  Ginny and Liandra had gone on ahead and were waiting for them.

            The door of the Trophy Room squeaked as it swung open and all of them froze, including the three already inside the room.  

            "Shut the damn door already," hissed Draco impatiently.  Even line of his body radiated tension.  Ginny and Liandra merely floated impassively.  Harry pushed the door closed and swept the invisibility cloak off of them.  Draco nodded curtly.

            "I'm glad you could make it," he said.  "I've caught wind of something you should know about.  There's going to be an attack."

            "Attack?" Hermione exclaimed.  "Here at the school?"

            "No," Draco replied, his lips thinning.  "The Death Eaters are going  to bring the Dementors out of Azkaban and march them across the countryside, killing all the muggles they find.  The Dementors will become bloated with souls and even more powerful; nothing will be able to stand in the way of the Dark Lord."

            "Not if I have anything to say about it!" Ron yelled, jumping up and brandishing his wand.

            "Sit down and be quiet, Ron," Harry said softly.  "Dumbledore already knows.  It's why all the teachers have been so jumpy.  He can take care of it.  There's more."  Ron sat down, deflated.

            Draco nodded in agreement.  "It's a diversion.  It has to be.  Voldemort knows that Dumbledore has enough trained and powerful witches and wizards here at Hogwarts to take care of the Dementors as soon as they leave Azkaban.  The question is, what's the diversion for?"

            They sat in silence for a moment, thinking for all they were worth.  Hermione shook her head in frustration.  

            "It's beyond me to try to fathom a mind that vile," she said in disgust.

            "I don't know either," Ginny chimed in.  "All the teachers in Hogwarts gone to fight him, and for what?"

            They all stared at her, eyes wide.  She looked from one to the other in confusion.  "What?"

            "Ginny," Hermione said slowly.  "You're a _genius_."

            "He's trying to empty out Hogwarts.  He's coming here," Draco whispered.  "Why?"  

            "Besides the obvious, you mean?" Harry asked sardonically.  "He wants what he's always wanted.  Me."

            "But…he got what he really wanted from you in our fourth year, didn't he?" Ron asked meekly.  "He has a new body and he knows – _thinks _he knows – that he can defeat you now.  Why would he be coming after you now?  What's different?"

            "Revenge?" Hermione asked doubtfully.

            "Could be," Draco said.  "Or he could've found out that Harry's got the Spirit Blade."

            "Let's hope not," Hermione said, shuddering.

            "Should we tell Dumbledore?" Ginny asked.  "This is too much for us to handle, isn't it?"

            The others nodded reluctant agreement.  

            "I bet he already knows anyway," Draco put in.

            "But what if he doesn't?" Ginny asked worriedly.

            "He does," Liandra said softly, as if unwilling to participate in the conversation.  "Dumbledore knows everything.  The walls talk to him."

            The all stared at her in consternation. 

            "Oh, not literally," she said in amusement.  "It was just a figure of speech.  But I'm sure he knows anyway."

            "Well, we should at least make sure," Ginny said stubbornly.

            "If it makes you happy, Gin," Harry said.  "But it can wait until morning, at least."

            Ginny nodded reluctant agreement along with the others and the meeting began to break up.

            "Oh, by the way," Draco said to Harry as they moved toward the door. "I'm sorry about what I said to you before."

            "No apology needed," Harry said, smiling.

~*~

            The next morning dawned cold and cloudy.  Harry really didn't feel like climbing out of bed, but there was no other choice.  With a tremendous yawn, he pulled himself out of bed and dragged himself down to breakfast.

            "'Morning, Harry," Ginny said as she floated up through the floor of the Great Hall and through the table, her head appearing from the center of a pile of pancakes.  

            "Mmph," he replied, and then swallowed.  "'Morning, Gin."

            Ron and Hermione wandered in and plopped down beside them and helped themselves to food, Hermione daintily and Ron voraciously.  Ginny giggled half-heartedly at her brother.

            "Slow down, Ron, you'll choke," she said, sounding only half teasing.

            "Ginny," Hermione said slowly, "are you – all right?  You've been so _odd_ lately."

            "Yeah," Ron said.  "I've noticed it too."

            Ginny shrugged.  She didn't really want to answer.  How could she explain her fits of depression, her bouts of meaninglessness, to them?  How could she tell them that sometimes she didn't _want_ to live again?

            "Ginny," Harry said, "is there something you're not telling us?"  His brow crinkled in worry and hurt.  "What have you been keeping from us?"

            "Nothing!" Ginny cried as his words cut straight to her heart.  "I haven't been keeping anything from you!  Just leave me alone!"  She swooped away through the floor, insubstantial tears thick on her cheeks.

            Harry looked as if he'd just been slapped.  There was something wrong and Ginny – Ginny had lied to him.  He looked up to find Dumbledore staring at him from the staff's table.  Dumbledore's twinkling eyes held his gaze for a moment and then the Headmaster suddenly stiffened and his eyes took on an abstracted look.  A second later, every other teacher acquired the same look and then, as one, each teacher disapparated, leaving the students alone in the Great Hall with nothing but their questions.

~*~

            As the students sat in shocked silence, the walls of the castle reverberated with the voice of Albus Dumbledore, amplified to many times its normal volume.

            "A crisis has called for the skills of Hogwarts' professors.  Please do not panic and proceed to your House Common Rooms immediately.  Prefects will take charge of their Houses.  Head Boy and Girl will take over in my stead."  The Head Boy and Girl looked shocked.

            "That sounded like a recording," Hermione murmured.  Harry nodded his agreement.  His head was whirling.  First Ginny and now this….

            The students around him were moving as if in a daze, picking themselves up from half-eaten breakfasts and making their way out of the Hall.  The confusion was chokingly thick.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined the steady flow of bodies out the door.  Liandra had inexplicably disappeared.

            As they were exiting, Draco sidled up next to Harry and poked him hard in the ribs.  

            "Watch out for yourself, Potter," he hissed, glaring.

            "Thanks, Malfoy," Harry hissed back, trying with all his might to look angry rather than amused.

            Draco nodded once and then stalked off with his nose in the air, Crabbe and Goyle on his heels.  Ron and Hermione, who hadn't been able to hear the quiet exchange, looked at Harry inquiringly.  

            "He just wished us good luck," Harry said under his breath.  Both of them grinned but then quickly sobered again.

            "We'll need it," Ron said.

~*~

            The atmosphere in the Common Room was tense, to say the least.  Ron had beaten every person in Gryffindor at chess at least once and Hermione was just finishing her second book.  Harry had unobtrusively stashed his sword underneath the couch so that if there was a need for it, it would be close at hand.  Now he sat motionless, staring at the flames which flickered blood-red before him.  They seemed like a premonition.

            He wondered again what was the matter with Ginny.  Ron and Hermione had told him of her strange behavior two days before, and Harry himself had witnessed her when she had almost joined with the wind and blown away forever.  How could he help her when she wouldn't tell  him what was the matter – when she lied to him about it?  He sighed heavily.  He didn't even know where she was now, and if she never wanted to see him again, it would be easy for her to accomplish with the endless halls of Hogwarts at her disposal.  

            Harry's head jerked up as Liandra swooped through the ceiling, silver-white wings flaring.  

            "They're coming!" she cried.  "They're coming here!"

            Harry grabbed his sword from beneath the couch, unsheathing it quickly and moving to stand before the door.  He hoped fervently that his adversary would be something against which the Spirit Blade would be some use.  Ron and Hermione rushed to stand beside him, pulling out their wands.

            The portrait swung open, revealing the Fat Lady sprawled along the bottom of the frame, her skin gray.  An imposing masked figure in black robes stepped inside, thin lips sneering.  Behind each of his shoulders stood a slim, dusky-skinned figure with spiraling ebony horns protruding from a high, arched forehead.  Black claws extended from their spidery fingers and their eyes ate the light around them.  There was a kind of dangerous, feral beauty about them. 

            Liandra came alighted behind him and whispered softly to him, "Demons."  He nodded his understanding without ever taking his eyes from his foes.

            And then the last of them came into view.  There, standing behind the Death Eater, was Ginny, bathed in a flickering green glow, her face contorting from icy calm to fiery rage in time with her flickering aura.

            _'Fight it, Gin,'_ Harry thought fiercely.  _'You're strong enough to fight it.'_

            "So, Harry Potter," the masked man said in a smooth and cultured voice, "you are again the one we seek."

            "So, Lucius Malfoy," Harry said coldly, "you are the one _we_ seek.  You have quite a lot to answer for."

            "Oh, do I now?" Lucius Malfoy replied.

            "Yes," Ron grated from beside Harry.  "And please, do answer in _screams_."

A/N: I find it amusing that I wrote the last part of this chapter while listening to such appropriate songs and "Haunted", "Taking Over Me", and "Bring Me to Life."  Thank  you, Evanescence!  Anyway, I'm getting back on track.  I've got ideas, I've got time to write them, and the school year's almost over.  And, truth to tell, so's the story.  We're coming to the final climax, everyone!  Hoorah!  And I actually know how it's going to end!  Even bigger hoorah!  Now if the stupid site will just let me post – experiencing overload, bah humbug!  Thanks to my reviewers!

Zaz: Hopefully more happiness will ensue now!  Thanks!

Cariel: Sorry I couldn't finish it sooner, but hopefully from now on I'll be better about my posting.

g-i-n-n-y:  Here's more!  Hope you enjoyed it.

spunkygabi:  I'm glad you like it!

Bessorla: No, silly girl, there's no D/Hr here.  Only friends.  You'll have to take care of the in CoI which you haven't updated in forever, by the way!  Get cracking!  Chop, chop!  If _I_ can update, then you can, so there.  I expect the next chapter in my inbox pronto!

Veldan:  Yeah, sorry, you're right, that last chapter went absolutely nowhere.  It was a filler/comedic relief/I need to post something right now and I really don't know where this story's going kind of chapter.  But I know where the story's going now, so things should be speeding up.

Mike: Heh, you can still have your own world.  And you're always welcome to borrow mine. ;-)


	17. The Battle of Light and Darkness

Disclaimer: The setting, the characters, etc. are not mine…but the plot is.  I somehow think the probability of this happening in the real Harry Potter universe is slim to nil…

A/N: I would just like to with _Undead_ a very happy, though slightly belated, birthday.  Yes, my dear readers, I have been writing this story for over a year now.  I'll miss it horribly when it's over; it's become like an old friend to me…Though I think I'll start an L/J fic when this one's over…I wrote the first page or so over a year ago as well, but then never got to finishing even the first chapter.  This one turned out better anyway.  Enjoy!

Chapter 17 ~ The Battle of Light and Darkness

            Lucius Malfoy threw back his head and laughed.

            "As if you puny wizardlings could do anything to harm _me_," he sneered.  "Your friends will be dead before you blink, Harry Potter, and I will take you back to the Dark Lord to await his pleasure."

            Harry stared into his cold, gray eyes unblinkingly, challenge in every taught muscle.  Lucius's lips, if possible, curled even more.

            "Kill the redhead and the girl and bring the other to me," Lucius hissed to his demon bodyguards.  The rest of the students had long since fled the Common Room for the relative safety of their dorms.  

            The demons didn't so much charge as appear before the three, their dusky skin darkening the entire room with dancing shadows.  One targeted Ron while the other slunk toward Hermione.

            Harry panicked.  One demon was on either side of him; he couldn't get to them in time to save both of his friends – but if he didn't decide soon, he would lose both of them anyway.  His blood froze in his veins and he felt again the awful lassitude which had enveloped him as he watched Ginny die.  

            "_Immobulus!_" shouted Hermione desperately as metallic black claws reached for her neck.  The demon shuddered and ground to a halt.  For a moment, it seemed that it might shake off the spell and continue, but then it froze, motionless, its mouth twisted in a snarl.  Hermione let out a long shuddering breath.

            Her yell had broken Harry out of his stasis and he leaped in front of Ron, brandishing his sword wildly.  The demon's lipless mouth twisted into a grotesque parody of a smile.  Harry swung the sword wildly, his body shaking with rage and adrenaline, and landed a glancing blow on a dark-skinned shoulder.

            The sword burst into brilliant silver-blue flame and the chunk of dark flesh was incinerated before it reached the floor.  The demon winced and retreated several uncertain steps, looking over its shoulder at its master.

            "Get on with it," snapped Lucius Malfoy.

            The demon advanced again, more cautiously this time, angling its injured shoulder away from Harry and his burning sword.  Harry could feel his heart pounding with great, shuddering convulsions.

            "Harry!" Hermione screamed.  His gaze flickered to her for a second, saw the other demon breaking jerkily free of Hermione's charm – and the demon reached for him.  He swung the sword wildly, felt it connect with a substance the consistency of tough leather and then come free.  The demon's hand dropped to the floor with a thunk, burning brightly.  Its black, lipless mouth opened and let forth a shrill keening reminiscent of a mandrake.  As if Harry's hand had a life of its own, the sword whipped around and bit into the demon's neck, jerked itself out and then plunged into its chest.  The black-skinned demon collapsed to the floor, dirty blue smoke oozing from its burning wounds.  Its claws clutched weakly at the carpet for a moment and then its entire body exploded in a mushroom cloud of musty-smelling mist.  Lucius Malfoy's eyes rolled back in his head and he stared at the world with milky orbs before following his servant in collapse.

            But Harry had no time to think of him.  The other demon was bearing down on Ron and Hermione, who were both throwing random spells at it, seemingly with no effect whatsoever.  Every once in a while, it would twitch as if stung by an insect but then continue its slow pursuit, looking rather as if it was wading through mud.  It was so intent upon its prey that it failed to notice its master's indisposition.  Harry stalked behind it, raised his sword with an aching arm and thrust the sword between the demon's shoulder blades.  It shrieked and fell forward, dissipating into smoke before it even touched the floor.  Harry was left, sweaty and disheveled, staring into the shocked eyes of his best friends.

~*~

            Ginny's mind screamed and roiled and rebelled against the steel claws holding it captive.  Her vision wavered from black to green to white and back again.  Liandra's voice echoed in her head.

             "_Finally I was able to erect a barrier between the sleep and my mind.  And if I pushed it forward, I was less under control.  If I got it all the way to the front of my mind, I was free.  D'you see?"_

            Brick by painstaking brick, she built a wall to separate herself from the evil invading her mind.  She watched as the demons attacked Ron and Hermione, as one was frozen and the other blocked by Harry.  She was powerless to help, battling for her own mind.  At least while her internal battle went on, neither could she harm her friends.  

            The wall wavered and bent like cloth in a strong wind.  A whisper began in her mind, like a tickling feather.  It grew and grew from a tickle to an itch to a burning, searing command.

            **_"Attack!"_**

            She struggled like a flopping fish in the talons of an eagle, out of her element and breathless.  The strain in her mind told her that soon it would snap like a brittle twig.  It was a line she would rather not cross, but she would if she had to, rather than harm these people dearest to her heart.  She knew instinctively that any person she touched at this moment would become another victim of Avada Kedavra.  The spell would invade their body from her own like a virus.  

            Her foot lifted without her conscious direction and, in desperation, she _pushed just that bit more – and felt something in her mind **snap**.  _

            Her body flooded with warmth and her mental wall collapsed, for there was no longer anything for it to push against.  Her mind and body were her own again and a blue-white power flooded her mind.  It coated her vision with a shimmering haze blotched with the shadow of the demons.  Even as she watched, the light devoured one of them, coalesced into a brightly burning sphere, and then shot a brilliant ray of light into Lucius Malfoy's shadowed form.  He collapsed bonelessly to the floor.  

            Ginny smiled and directed the light toward the other demon.    It gathered round the darkness greedily, licking at its edges, but it was not strong enough to dispel it, or even harm it significantly.  She detected another softly glowing, winged presence trying to shape the light, but it had none of her strength and she could see the light slipping through its fingers in shimmering strands.  So she built another wall with sparkling blocks of light between the demon and its prey.  Even the wall couldn't hold it back completely, and the demon pushed it forward with each step, slowed only slightly, hardly even noticing it was hindered.  But it was enough.  Harry, shining with blinding opalescent light, plunged his glowing sword in to the shadow, burning it away.  The glittering light danced around him in a glory of triumph.  

            Ginny let out a long breath and the light began to ebb from her vision.  It converged in streams and rivers and flowed into her body until she felt she couldn't contain any more.  She held a hand before her face and there seemed to be stars moving in orbit beneath her skin.  

            "Ginny--" Harry said hesitantly.  She looked up and saw that he was shielding his eyes with an upraised hand.  "Ginny, what's happened to you?"

            "What's happened to me--?" she asked, and then paused at the sound of her own voice echoing melodically throughout the room and throbbing through the air, vibrating the portraits on the walls.  "Oh," she whispered, and then shrugged helplessly, unwilling to speak again.  

            "Harry," Hermione hissed, tugging his sleeve.  Her face was pale and bloodless and her hands were shaking.  "Harry, he's starting to move."

            Harry looked at the inert form sprawled across the carpet and, sure enough, Lucius Malfoy's pale-lashed lids were quivering and his fingers slowly clenching into fists.  

            "It's up to you to break the mirror spell, Hermione," Harry said.  "Go on."

            She licked her lips nervously and took a deep breath.

            "With any luck, this will knock the bloody bastard out again," Hermione muttered to herself.

            "_'Mione!" Ron exclaimed, "Language!"  He grinned hugely at her as she grimaced._

            "_Boys," she muttered, shooting him a disgusted look, and then yelled, "_Finite Incantatem!_"_

            The shimmering golden globe of Hermione's mirror spell leapt into place around Lucius's sprawled form.  Dirty blue smoke filled the space between the two spells and Lucius disappeared from sight.  The air smelled as it does before a lightning storm, charged with electricity.  

            A double explosion shook the air and all of them, even Ginny and Liandra, were thrown backwards by the sheer power of it.  

            Ginny floated back through the wall into which she had been flung and was astonished to see the room once again overlaid with glimmering light.  As soon as she entered, it shot towards her as if magnetized.  There was a brilliant flash of milky light from beneath her skin which threw the room into sharp relief.  Then it dulled into a steady glow.

            "Ginny, _what is going on?" Ron exclaimed, his voice going up an octave from his normal range.  _

            "I—I don't know," she whispered, trying to keep the echoes of her voice in check.  The light…her voice…the stars under her skin…if Ginny had been able, she might have fainted.  As it was, she just wanted to run away.  Again.

            _'No,'_ she thought fiercely.  _'Not again.  Not this time.'_

            "You're – glowing," Hermione said, sounding puzzled.  

            "Um…yeah," Ginny whispered.

            "Brightly," added Harry, sounding stupefied.

            "Yeah…" she whispered again.

            "And your voice--" Ron added.

            "And your skin--" Hermione said.

            "And your…your…eyes--" Harry said, looking stupefied.

            "What about my eyes?" Ginny asked, forgetting herself and talking normally.  She winced at the echoes bouncing around the room.

            "They're full of stars…" Harry replied with awe. 

            "Eep," Ginny squeaked softly, her eyes going very wide.

            "Guys – Malfoy, remember?" Ron interrupted, and their gazes were diverted to the slightly charred figure on the ground, now thoroughly unconscious.  

            "We need some of his flesh," Hermione said distastefully.  Harry and Ron exchanged a glance.

            "I'm her brother, I should get to do it," Ron said belligerently.

            "I love her, I should get to do it," Harry replied heatedly.

            "I've known her longer than you have!"

            "Well, I haven't had her as long as you have, so I should be the one to bring her back!"

            "The Malfoys have insulted me more than they have you!"

            "Not true, they've insulted me _just _as much!"

            "Lucius is an enemy of my dad's, so I should have a claim to him!"

            "Lucius is a servant of Voldemort and he killed my parents, so I think I've got a claim to him, too!"

            "Stop!" shouted Ginny, not sure whether to be angry or laugh hysterically at their ridiculous antics.  "Which one of you is actually going to cast the spell?"

            "Well," said Harry shamefacedly, "I can't because I have to contribute my blood to the spell.  I think—I think it'd better be Hermione.  She's the most talented one of us."

            Ron reluctantly nodded his head.  "I think magic like that is a little beyond me at this point," he said with painful humility.  "And this is that absolute _last _thing I'd ever want to screw up."

            "So Hermione," Ginny concluded, "you get to do the honors."

            "But--" protested Hermione, "But I don't want to cut anyone up.  It's disgusting!"

            "You don't need much," Harry said soothingly.  "Just a tiny bit."

            Ron pulled out his pocketknife and handed it to Hermione.  She took it as if it was a snake – an angry snake which might bite her with venomous fangs – and approached Lucius Malfoy.  She stared at him for a long moment and then her expression lightened and she ran to her schoolbag, which was lying across the room, and pulled out a thin, round plastic container.  Returning to Malfoy, she scraped the knife over his skin repeatedly and then murmured a spell at the knife while holding it over the dish.  With a triumphant smile she replaced the top and presented it to Harry and Ron.  

            "Voila!  Skin cells of Lucius Malfoy!"  Hermione said triumphantly. 

            Ron groaned, "You mean we don't even get to make him bleed?"

            "Even a little bit?" Harry chimed in.

            "_Honestly_," Hermione said severely.  "You boys are so bloodthirsty.  Just because he did something wrong doesn't give you the excuse to follow his example."

            "He's a _murderer_," Ron argued.  "I think that gives us a little leeway."

            "Oh, come off it, Ron," Ginny said in exasperation, and winced again as her voice boomed loudly enough to rival the ocean surf.  

            Ron looked at her oddly, sighed, and gave up.

            "Now here's the real question," Harry said as he looked speculatively at the sprawled body.  "Are there more of them, and if so, where are they and what are they doing?  And furthermore, what are we going to do with _him_?"  He gestured at Malfoy.

            Suddenly, the Fat Lady's portrait burst open again and the younger Malfoy stood framed in the opening.  He was disheveled and even paler than usual.  He spared hardly a glance for his father lying unconscious on the floor.

            "Potter, get your sorry ass out here right now," he commanded.  "We need you."

~*~

A/N: There you have it, folks.  I've done my part, now it's your turn.  Shower me with lovely reviews and I'll try to get my next chapter out soon.  I'm trying to hit 150 reviews before the story's over, so help me out, eh?  Thanks oodles!  Ah yes, and a very special thanks to Bucky, a reviewer who's been with me from the very beginning, and who gave me my **100th** review!  

Zaz: Thank you soooo much for the tip on the site.  It was really bugging me.  And thanks for the review as well!  I'll do me best to keep 'em coming.

Bucky: Congrats on being my 100th reviewer!  And thank you ever so much.  Don't you worry, Ginny will come back to life.  I like to torture my characters, not my readers.

Mike: Don't you worry, love, here's a new one fresh off the presses. J

Byron245: Thanks, I will!

Pdlover: Thanks!

Veldan: Well, here's your "precious"…don't hurt me!  I know you already read most of it, but I did edit it a bit plus add another couple pages.

CelticKnight: I wouldn't want to kill my readers!  So here 'tis and happy reading!  Thank you!


	18. Gryffindor Rules

Disclaimer: These people aren't mine

                    I hate to wait in line

                    The setting isn't either

                    I like the band called Seether

                    They belong to JK Rowling

                    I really hate bowling

                    The plot belongs to me

                     My brain is out to sea…

A/N It's almost one in the morning, I have to work tomorrow, and my internet is down so I can't post this.  But it's done, dammit!  I finished it!  I overcame summer-laziness, not-being-home-edness, and writer's-block-edness!  Hallelujah!  Praise Brian!  And if you don't know what I'm talking about….don't ask.  Just move right along to the chapter…

Chapter 18 ~ Gryffindor Rules

            Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushed out into the hallway after Draco into a scene from nightmare.  Demons roamed the hallway, overturning suits of armor and shredding paintings from their frames.  In some places, they'd even smashed through the stone walls and torn doors from their hinges.  Against a far wall, the students of Hogwarts stood in a line, manacled together and guarded by three Death Eaters.  A small group of Slytherins and a lone Ravenclaw stood in a group apart from the others, free and unmolested.  

            "Those are the children of Death Eaters," Draco's voice whispered in Harry's ear.  Harry jumped and looked around wildly.  He hadn't known there was anyone near him, and to his vision, there wasn't.  Draco snorted with suppressed laughter.  "What, you thought you were the only one with an Invisibility Cloak, Potter?  Not likely.  After all, _my _father still has more money than _yours_ ever had."

            Harry flushed with mingled anger and embarrassment.  Sure, Draco was helping him, but why did he have to be such a git while he was doing it?

            One of the Death Eaters caught sight of them.  The black robed androgynous figure elbowed one of his compatriots sharply and suddenly the three Gryffindors were the object of three pairs of malevolent eyes.

            "Stop!" one of them hollered and a sudden silence descended upon the wreckage of Hogwarts.

            "Well," said another, "I guess our dear colleague didn't have the success he thought he would."

            "We'll just have to pick up the slack," concluded the last one.  "Again."

            "Capture them!" the first one barked.  The demons turned from their material mayhem to converge on the Gryffindors.  

            "Draco," Harry muttered under his breath.  "Draco, you still there?"

            "No, I ran off and joined the circus," replied the air beside him.

            "Go get the rest of the Gryffindors.  Tell them we need their help," Harry whispered through gritted teeth.

            "Tell them that the demons are susceptible to one spell for about a minute, but after that are immune," Hermione chimed in.  Ron simply stared at the approaching demons, face pale and jaw slack.  

            Harry took a deep, steadying breath and raised his sword before him in a kind of salute.  It's blue fire flared threateningly and every demon winced as one.

            "Move!" snapped a Death Eater, and the demons resumed their steady approach, though it seemed slower than before, as if they dreaded to meet this black-haired youth with his burning sword.

~*~

            Ginny strained with all her might, building layer upon layer of glowing silver brick wall before the oncoming horde of demons.  Her back muscles were in knots and her hands clenched in fists.  She pulled glimmering strands of light from all around her and from within her, giving them the strength of steel and the weight of stone.  Still the demons came on, but slower, slower…

~*~

            Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other in puzzlement as the demons slowed to a crawl, seeming to come up against a barrier, as if the air had suddenly thickened to the consistency of molasses in front of them.  The demons snarled and slashed the air before them with long, ebony claws, as if there was something there to rend. 

            "What's wrong with them?" Hermione murmured, her brow creased in confusion.

            "It's Ginny," Liandra said softly.  "Ginny's holding them back."

            All eyes turned to Ginny but she seemed unaware of them.  Her eyes were unfocused and every muscle was as taut as a harp string.

            "I've never seen anything like it," Liandra whispered in awe.  "Such power…"

            "Gin," Harry said gently.  "Gin, can you hear me?"

            "Mmhm," Ginny said distractedly.

            "Gin, can you let one through at a time?  Just one?"

            "Sure," Ginny said in her musical voice.  It sent shudders down Harry's spine.

            Abruptly, Harry found himself face to face with a snarling, gibbering demon.  It reached for him before he had time to react and closed its taloned hands around his neck.  Their bony strength began to crush his windpipe and the talons bit into the soft flesh of his neck.  With a spastic movement, his sword arm swung around, severing the demons arms at the elbows.  The hands convulsed once more, leaving red slashes along his neck as they fell.  Harry gasped and coughed with returning air.

            "Ron," he wheezed, turning around, "I'm – sorry." 

            "What for?" Ron said in a voice that shook.

            "For – trying – to strangle – you before.  It's – no fun – at all."

            "S'all right, mate, you weren't – _look out!_"

            Trails of red-hot agony burned down Harry's back.  He threw his head back and screamed.  His ears were full of the sound of mad hornets and his vision darkened.  Claws clenched within his skin, sending stabbing knives of pain through Harry's back.

            Suddenly the claws were ripped away and Harry screamed again, sure that chinks of his flesh had been torn out.

            "Immobulus!" Ron bellowed, but it sounded as if it was coming from miles away.  Red sparks raced across his vision like a raging firestorm.

            "Harry, Harry, wake up, please wake up!"  Harry became aware of a rough, hard surface beneath his cheek, and realized that he was lying face down on the hard stone floor.  "Harry, you have to get up!" The voice sounded frantic and he made an effort to open his eyes.  The felt as if they were being weighed down by bricks.  Hands began to desperately shake his shoulders, sending ripples of pain along his already overloaded nerves.  

            "Stop touching him," a new voice said sharply.  "Move away!"  Suddenly a blue-white light like clouds of ocean foam in the moonlight flowed over the angry red of his vision.  The pain receded and he slowly opened his eyes to look upon Liandra's glowing form.  "You've got to get up, Harry, or we'll all be lost," she said forcefully.

            It seemed as if eons had passed in his pain-fogged mind, but it couldn't have been more than a minute since the demon still stood frozen, Harry's blood dripping from his talons.  With an effort, Harry raised his sword just as the demon twitched and then came back to life.  With a chilling howl, it leapt forward, claws outstretched—

            --And implaled itself on Harry's sword.

            "Not too bloody bright, are they?" Ron muttered, looking green.

            Another demon immediately appeared before them, lunging for Harry, but Hermione was ready for it this time and shouted "Immobulus!" at the top of her lungs.  The demon froze and Harry didn't even give it a chance to defend itself.  He plunged his sword through its heart and watched it dissolve into helpless bluish smoke.  The next demon flowed through Ginny's barrier almost immediately and this time it was Ron who froze it with a well-placed charm.  

            They got into a kind of rhythm, where first Hermione and then Ron would tackle a demon, freezing it so that Harry could kill it with the minimum effort.  

            "Where the hell is Draco?" Hermione muttered wrathfully as yet another demon fell.  The three Death Eaters at the back were involved in some sort of argument, shouting and gesticulating wildly.  Harry wasn't surprised – at least two thirds of their demon army had been decimated.  At this rate, there wouldn't be anything left by the end of five minutes.  

            "Harry, watch out!"  Liandra shrieked suddenly.  There were two demons in front of him and he had to jump back abruptly to avoid the second one's claws.  Hermione jumped in to stun the second demon and Harry parted both of them across the middle with one sweeping stroke.

            Just when they were about to sigh with relief, not two but _three _demons forced their way through Ginny's barrier.  

            "Gin, what's going on?" Harry shouted.

            "Can't hold them…" Ginny replied breathlessly, and then with a sound like tearing cloth, the barrier broke and the entire demon horde came streaming toward them.

~*~

            Ginny felt her wall topple and her heart broke with it.  She had failed.  She looked at Harry as he bravely tried to fend off all the demons and protect his friends…he was doomed.  So were they all.  

            With hardly a conscious thought as to what she was doing, Ginny began to gather in the shards of her broken wall.  She drew all the glimmering light to her and took it inside of her until she blazed with incandescent fire.  The only light left in the room came from Harry's blazing sword and with a cry of triumph, she dove into it, blending her fire with its own.

~*~

            Harry didn't see anything except a flash of blue fire entering his sword, but suddenly the blade flared with a hundred times more power.  The demons who had not been stunned drew back in fear.  

            "You've almost got them, you fools!" shouted a Death Eater, jumping up and down frantically.  "Keep going!"

            The demons moved forward cautiously.  Harry's arms rose without his conscious direction until he held the sword straight up over his head.  Suddenly, a blinding flash of sapphire light burst outward from the sword and the room was obscured by a thick curtain of dirty blue smoke.  The filthy stuff invaded Harry's lungs and he coughed violently, tearing open the wounds on his back yet again.

            Ron and Hermione edged closer to Harry and each slid a supporting arm under his shoulders.  Harry sighed as he felt some of the strain leave his back.  

            "Don't forget, there's still the three Death Eaters over there," hissed Hermione.  Harry groaned softly.  He didn't feel up to much more fighting at the moment.  His most fervent wish was to pass out again.  The soothing blue light which Liandra had used to tend his hurts was beginning to wear off and his wounds throbbed with a vengeance.  Hermione and Ron exchanged a worried look.

            "Why don't you stay here, Harry?  We can take care of the Death Eaters," Ron said with forced bravery.

            "Yes, Harry, sit down and rest," Hermione agreed, looking terrified.

            Harry would have protested, but his words were swallowed by a wave of dizziness.  He nodded numbly and they lowered him gently to the ground.

            "Be – careful," he croaked and then lowered his head into shaking hands.  

            Harry had thought that nothing could be worse than the endless tension of fighting the Dark Lord's demons, but the horrible blind wait was wearing his nerves to shreds.  He wanted to jump up and scream and run around in circles just to disrupt the blank, eddying smoke that hid his friends from him.  Somewhere, somewhere within that swirling, opaque smoke, Ron and Hermione faced off against three Death Eaters.  Harry closed his eyes and prayed that the unequal battle would turn out in their favor.

            Through the luminous smoke, wild laughter echoed and Harry shivered.  The strangeness of his surroundings distorted the sound and made it utterly unrecognizable.  It drew closer, and Harry wondered whether it was his friends returning victorious or the Death Eaters coming to finish the job.  He clenched his jaw and peered into the smoke.

            Ron and Hermione materialized before him, their faces wreathed in smiles.  Harry sagged against the wall.  He felt as though every one of his limbs had just turned to jelly in relief.  

            "Harry!  We did it!" Hermione squealed, quite as if she'd just gotten 300 percent on an exam rather than taken on three Death Eaters and won.  

            "'Mione was brilliant!" Ron said proudly, making Hermione blush.  "She put a mirror spell around the two of us and the Death Eaters ended up putting the Cruciatus Curse on themselves."

            "Well, Ron was the one who figured out the key to the spell holding the other students hostage," Hermione shot back.  "I never would have thought of 'Slytherin rules!'"

            Harry then noticed that they were no longer alone.  Behind Ron and Hermione stood a large group of students from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and, to a lesser extent, Slytherin.  Ron followed his glance and said, "The rest of Slytherin is tied up against the other wall.  They were the one's associated with the Death Eaters.  'Mione used a lock spell with the key 'Gryffindor rules.'"  

            "But where's Draco with the other Gryffindors?" Hermione asked worriedly.  "Maybe we'd better check on him."  

            Harry nodded his agreement and started to stand up, but Ron knelt down beside him and put a restraining hand on his shoulder.  

            "You stay here and rest, mate.  You've done more than enough already tonight."

            Harry sighed, but settled back against the wall complacently.  Ron did have a point, after all.  He was absolutely exhausted, not to mention in quite a bit of pain.  His back throbbed with a vengeance, and he could feel trickles of blood seeping from the punctures on his neck.

            Several of the Ravenclaws volunteered to go with Ron and Hermione into Gryffindor tower in case anything untoward had occurred, and traditional inter-House secrecy was set aside without a second thought.  The Hufflepuffs, who were usually adept at healing spells, gathered around Harry as his friends disappeared from sight again.  

            In fact, so many Hufflepuffs descended upon Harry that he began to feel claustrophobic and the press of bodies threatened to suffocate him.  He felt his breath quicken…

            "Clear _off_," someone shouted.  "Give him some room to breathe!  Sheesh, you'd think you'd never been around a hurt person before.  Clear _off,_ I say!"  Gradually, the crowd moved back, and Harry saw that he'd never been in any danger of being smothered.  His combat-heightened senses had merely made everyone seem closer than they were.  He breathed a huge sigh of relief as cooler air reached his lungs.  

            Harry closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, he found another freckled face very close to his own.  

            "Hello," said Hannah Abbott.  "You're rather beat up, aren't you?"

            "Well, thank you for stating the obvious," snapped Harry.

            "No need to get snippy," she said tartly, and Harry recognized the voice which had told everyone to clear off.  "Now, I happen to be the best there is a healing charms, so I'm going to have a go on your back, if you don't mind.  So, if you'll just lie down on your stomach, like so….good."  And she whipped out her wand and went to work on his back without so much as a 'by your leave'.  

            "Those demons made a right mess of you, didn't they?" she chattered on as Harry felt a curious tugging sensation on his wounded back.  He gritted his teeth on a sarcastic reply.  After all, she _was _healing him.  The least he could do was be courteous. 

            "So I'll just pull the skin together like…so…and then seal it together like…_so_," she said as Harry yelped in pain.  "Sorry, but it'll hurt less in a second, I promise, and then you'll be back on your feet in no time."

            "Sure," Harry gritted.

            "You want me to look at your neck too?" she asked cheerily, as if she hadn't just caused him more pain.

            "No thanks," he muttered.

            "Well, I think I'd better, y'know, since you never know what crisis is going to come up next or when more demons are going to come.  I promise it'll only hurt for a minute," she said, and Harry glanced up at her.  Her expression was sympathetic in contrast with her clinical words.  "Sit up so I can see better."

            Harry sat up slowly, and marveled that his back felt as good as new.  There was no tenderness at all.  It felt as though he'd never been wounded at all.  He looked at Hannah in wonder and she grinned at him, wrinkling her freckled nose.  She tossed her long red-gold braid over her shoulder and said, "Well, let me look at your neck and I'll fix it up while we wait for your friends to come back, eh?"

~*~

A/N: I just had to put Hannah Abbott in there.  I don't know if her description fits what was given in the book, and furthermore, I don't care.  Hannah's me so I just had to use her at some point.  Yeah, so now she's a healer, although, I, personally, have absolutely no interest in medicine.  I might if I could heal people by magic though…oh well.  I can in books, right?  Anyway, thanks to my reviewers!

Bessorla: I reread what I wrote, and I'm tempted to agree with you about Draco being OOC.  I plan on going through this entire story and editing it when it's finished (since I did start writing it over a year ago and I can't look at the first chapter without flinching anymore), so that's one of the things I'll change.  It's easily fixed…just one spot deleted.  Thanks for the heads up!  Oh, and I'm no longer planning on doing a L/J fic after reading OotP…but I do have a rather amusing AU fic brewing in my twisted little mind…stay tuned!

Hplova4eva: Thanks!

Veldan:  Hehehe, thanks!  You lucky duck, you, always getting to read the chapters ahead of time…

Shinjai:  Thank you!  That's high praise indeed.

Fia: Well, thanks!  I'm not quite sure what you want me to email you, but I've sent you a notice that the new chapter's up, so happy reading!

Eva:  Yeah, Ginny and Draco are my favorite characters in this story.  Thanks for your input!

Eedoe: H/G and R/Hr are my all-time favorite ships, though I'm not fanatical, and I don't think I could write my story any other way.  Hopefully now that the fifth book is out, you won't be too busy to come finish _Undead_.  *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*  Thanks for the review!

I'vegonecrazyandi'mnotsureifiwillbeback:  Please don't die!  Quick, here's another chapter!  Breathe!  Breathe!  I'm glad you like my story.


End file.
